The English card of the day is the featured stride from G-TD05: Fateful Star Messiah, Judgement Messiah. A rare layered stride, Judgement Messiah has multiple effects as part of one skill that trigger sequentially, but not all of those effects have to be used every time. Like the Fighter's Collection 2015 stride Nectaria, Judgement's skill includes an initial effect that resolves on-hit and an optional secondary effect that resolves afterwards, but unlike her, Judgement's full skill does not depend on a specific heart to use. Mastering Judgement Messiah requires understanding the benefits of unlock in the Messiah deck, and when to choose to make use of it.
When Judgement Messiah's attack hits, you can lock an opponent's backrow rearguard and then choose up to one locked card to unlock. The keyword here is "up to;" it is not by any means necessary nor always a good idea to unlock a card. Particularly since Judgement is an early game stride like Gablade or Grim Recruiter, at the time you are resolving him the only locked card may in fact be the unit that he just locked. It's ideal to preserve the -1 that he incurs against the opponent, so in that scenario you would not want to unlock any units. However, if you used Judgement Messiah in conjunction with the skills of the breakstride Alter Ego Messiah, then one of your own rearguards is already locked and it would be ideal to unlock that unit so that it can either attack, or trigger an on-unlock skill like that of Dark Metal Chameleon or the deck's first vanguard Neon Messiah. That way you can either countercharge a damage or search your deck for a copy of Alter Ego to discard for the cost of stride next turn. On the other hand, if you're at a later stage of the fight where Alter Ego's generation break 2 would be online and your own locked rearguards aren't omega locked, then it would be better to wait for your units to unlock on their own in the end phase so that Alter Ego's soulblast skill can activate and draw cards off those cards unlocking. Failing to exercise proper judgment in using Judgement Messiah will invariably prove costly, as one or more pieces of your delicate lock-unlock strategy will fall through the cracks.
The major hole in the Messiah deck at this time is its lack of effective unlockers, which are primarily relegated to still-unreleased promotional cards. Judgement Messiah is thus one of a few opportunities outside of Amnesty Messiah to trigger your on-unlock skills, and you should take advantage of that opportunity accordingly. Fateful Star Messiah will reach western shores on June 19th, 2015.
The Japanese card of the day comes from the latest in a series of Harmony units from G-Clan Booster 01: Academy of Divas. Single-minded Girl Riddhe functions like other on-ride units introduced since Generation Stride, bringing with her a non-generation break skill that can be resolved when one will be the second fighter to stride. When used alongside her generation break 2 counterpart, Miracle Voice Lawlis, Riddhe helps form an effective all-around deck that can function well in many different scenarios and against several types of opponents. Riddhe also makes better use of the Harmony mechanics introduced by Academy of Divas, and with proper play can act as a much less situational Alfred for Bermuda Triangle.
AUTO (Vanguard/Rearguard circles): ♪♪ Harmony CONT (Vanguard circle): Generation break 1: During your turn, this unit gets Power +5000 for each of your units in ♪♪ Harmony. AUTO: [Counterblast 1, Soulblast 1] When this unit is placed on the vanguard circle, you may pay the cost. If paid, look at up to 5 cards from the top of your deck, search for up to 1 card with the ♪♪ Harmony ability from among them, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your hand, and shuffle that deck.
Riddhe's on-ride counterblast 1 soulblast 1 searches the top 5 cards of the deck for another unit with the Harmony skill, and then adds that unit to hand. Her skill is invaluable when going first, as it's a net +1 in card advantage that lets you search out the pieces of your ♪♪ Harmony strategy. This helps the Bermuda deck stand up to opponents that try to deliberately prevent skills from going off by staying at grade 2, and makes better use of the initial ride than riding a breakride or breakstride grade 3. When going second, Riddhe is still valuable since you can search out either herself or Lawlis from the top 5 cards and immediately discard one of those units to stride during the stride step.
Riddhe's generation break 1 is the first skill to make use of the ♪♪ Harmony ability effectively. To use her, you have to understand how this mechanic works; if any unit (including units that do not have ♪♪ Harmony) is placed in the same column as Riddhe, both units will be in Harmony. If either unit leaves the field, neither is in Harmony. This means that if any units are in Harmony at all, there will always be a minimum of two in that state. Like a pair of idols singing a duet, they're not in Harmony anymore if one of them falls off the stage. Also note that ♪♪ Harmony is not an instance, but a state like rest and stand; it is either on or off, and multiple Harmonies on a single unit cannot be accrued. Because Riddhe's generation break 1 is worded to receive its power bonus for every unit in Harmony, and by nature of the ♪♪ Harmony ability there will always be a minimum of two units in that state, if Riddhe is active at all she will have a +10000 power bonus. If any of your rearguard columns and Riddhe are also in Harmony with their respective boosters, this will translate to a +20000 power boost. If all three columns are in Harmony, Riddhe's power will cap at 41000 power unboosted, completely exceeding the likes of the King of Knights' Vanguard Ezzell or the Liberator of the Round Table Alfred. In terms of raw power, Riddhe is a new frontier.
One problem that Riddhe doesn't entirely solve is the stapling of ♪♪ Harmony to generation break. It's very arguable that because being in Harmony is already a strict condition, Bermuda Triangle's skills ought not to have the generation break restriction attached at all. Generation break requires waiting for several turns for skills to go online, while being in Harmony requires jealously safeguarding one's cards in hand from retire and lock skills by not playing them at all until ♪♪ Harmony can be used. When put together, generation break and ♪♪ Harmony restrictions translate to not playing any rearguards until both cardfighters are at grade 3, and the comparative reward for this passive play is low. Even in the case of Riddhe, whose power output for input dramatically exceeds that of most stride units, this skill synergizes poorly with not playing rearguards until the turn before one uses Riddhe's generation break, and doesn't provide an adequate means of paying back for all the time spent biding. The opponent will generally be at 3 damage by the time Riddhe first goes online, but to use her high power effectively you need them to be at at least 4 damage.
The existing Harmony units are the new first vanguard Akari, the breakstride Lawlis (at left), the grade 1 Shizuku, and the generation break attackers Lurrie and Sanya. Lurrie and Sanya are standard 10000-power and 12000-power grade 1 and grade 2 attackers, but have the additional caveat of needing to be in Harmony to function, with the trade-off that they can attack either a rearguard or a vanguard. Standard generation break attackers can only attack a vanguard for their skill. But Duo and PR♥ISM subclan attackers can already attack both vanguards and rearguards while not needing to wait to be at grade 3 to do so; generation break attackers are already a step backwards from subclan attackers, and so the integration of ♪♪ Harmony with generation break is a further step down. There is a real need for ♪♪ Harmony units that do not need to be at generation break 1 for their skills to resolve.
In the case of Miracle Voice Lawlis, she's intended to synergize with First Lesson Akari (at right). Lawlis' on-stride counterblast returns a rearguard to hand and then draws a card for a net +1, but one of the advantages to this is that it resets Akari's Harmony. Because Lawlis is replaced by the unit that you stride, the Harmony she establishes with Akari when she rides disappears on-stride. Returning Akari to hand lets you play her to a rearguard column and follow her up by playing another rearguard, putting both Akari's generation break and ♪♪ Harmony ability online. Then you can use Akari's skill to put her into the soul, return the rearguard you called to put her in Harmony to hand, and draw another card. If used with the on-return counterblast of Lovely Day for a Walk Emilia from the same set, you can draw yet another card from Emilia for another net +1.
As a modern card advantage deck, the new Bermuda Triangle does have the benefit of being able to draw an extra card for every counterblast available. But unlike its contemporary, post-Generation Stride Oracle Think Tank, the new breed of Bermuda Triangle is discouraged from playing cards early game and has stringent requirements attached while also having no effective means of destroying the opponent at this time.
Drawing more cards on its own does not kill; it is telling that the height of Bermuda Triangle in the history of professional play is the rise of Duo Temptation Reitand her breakride Meer. What does it say that when Bermuda Triangle was given a revival legion in Monthly Bushiroad magazine, the unit created to revive Riviere was a restanding vanguard rather than a unit that supported Riviere herself? Every version of Bermuda Triangle that has placed in a major tournament since Divas' Duet has integrated either the stand skills of Reit, Trois or both. Prior to this, the primary deck for Bermuda Triangle in professional play was PR♥ISM-Promise Labrador, a Phantom Blaster Dragon clone that followed the formula of Death Army Cosmo Lord. Lawlis' generation break 2 is a Labrador for the current generation, dividing up the power and critical bonus into two instances of +5000 power on any two units and an additional critical for herself. Like generation break and Harmony itself, this is a step back from where Bermuda Triangle had progressed; and like virtually every clan of the game's ongoing fifth block, Bermuda Triangle is in danger of falling into a position where a previously existing subclan threatens to overtake the generation break support entirely by picking and choosing which units of the new support to integrate. Decks with strong early and midgame units that don't rely on generation break generally outcompete the new support, adopting the G-perfect defense cards from each set for their unflipping properties, clones of Steam Fighter Amber for their synergy with the existing deck, the stride units themselves and whichever support cards make the least trouble for that subclan's existing base of support. To avoid being overtaken by Duo or PR♥ISM, the Harmony deck needs to justify the long wait time with explosive gameplay.
While Riddhe is the first unit that makes the simultaneous wait for generation break and Harmony worthwhile, that doesn't change the awkward timing with which her massive center lane comes into play. There is an immediate solution in Fighter's Collection 2015, which provided Bermuda Triangle with its current set of strides. In particular, Legend of the Glass Slipper Amoris can return up to two units to hand when stridden, and by using this in conjunction with Lawlis' on-stride skill you can return three rearguards from the field to the hand. This doesn't address the issue of retire and lock potentially taking those rearguards away before Amoris can hit the field, but for the purposes of being able to field your ♪♪ Harmony units without losing access to their skills later, Amoris is a strong play that lets you treat your hand and field as one in the same. With her stride it's possible to field Shizuku and Sanya early on as a 16000-power lane, then when you reach grade 3 stride into Amoris to return both units to hand and call them again to put them in Harmony and set off their skills. The greater concern is if the first clan booster will provide any strides on the level of Amoris in terms of utility, and if the remaining support can do better than Riddhe.
As a whole the ♪♪ Harmony strategy has several holes in it that Academy of Divas has only just begun to address. Riddhe is one of the first cards in the set to make good use of its conditions, by benefiting from every unit in Harmony rather than having a more traditional skill attached to Harmony conditions. If Academy of Divas takes the Riddhe route of gaining bonuses for each Harmonized unit in play, the results will snowball into a strong gameplay variant that stands apart from the old engines.
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.
The English card of the day is a Blaster support unit from G-Legend Deck 01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori,” the Pitch Black Sage Charon. Designed to better support the Blaster subclan's retire skills while avoiding the pitfalls of generation break, this incarnation of Charon splits the benefits of a stride supporter with those of a card advantage unit. The result is a unit with benefits at every stage in the game, from initial setup to the pivotal endgame plays that will bring the opponent to their knees. Like all cards from this legend deck, Pitch Black Charon will have two prints; the first as a common, and the second as a triple rare. One triple rare Charon will be in every LD01, with three common editions of it rounding out the deck's playset.
Charon's initial skill is lifted from Steam Breath Dragon of Generation Stride. By revealing a grade 3 from your hand when Charon is called, you can search your deck for a grade 3 unit with "Blaster Dark" in its card name. You're then required to discard a card from hand to make the exchange neutral, but this doesn't have to be either of the grade 3s the skill involved. Several aspects of Charon have been prepatched to avoid exploitation. The first aspect is that Charon's on-call skill only works when called from the hand, so superior calling him with Dark Night Maiden Macha or Claret Sword Dragon won't work. The second is that because Charon only searches for grade 3 Blaster Darks, you can't search out Blaster Dark, Dark Revenger or Dark Revenger “Abyss.” Hence it's not possible to bypass grade 2 gradelock with Charon. His continuous skill allows Charon to be used as two rearguards to support the cost of a retire skill; this skill is almost identical to that of Cutting-Edge Knight David, but instead of being a generation break, Charon requires a Blaster vanguard to function.
Appropriately for the grandmaster's chief adviser, Charon's intended role is in supporting Blaster Dark “Diablo,” searching out copies of him and ensuring that there will be multiple grade 3s to stride with on one's initial stride turn. However, Blaster Dark has no retire skills that Charon can provide support to. In the legend deck one instead has to turn to Phantom Blaster “Diablo,” whose retire 3 cost Charon helps mitigate down to a retire 2. Charon also interacts with heart-stride name mechanics in an interesting way, as even if you've stridden a unit like Aurageyser Dragon that does not have Blaster in its name, as long as the heart card of the stride is a Blaster unit, Charon may be used for the cost of those skills. Likewise, if your heart is not a Blaster unit but your stride is Phantom Blaster “Diablo,” Charon's skill will still be live.
In addition to stride support, the Pitch Black Sage can also be used to hold up a variety of Blaster grade 3s. Shadow Paladin's founder and original grandmaster from Eclipse of Illusionary Shadows is one such unit; Phantom Blaster Dragon normally requires three sacrifices to gain +10000 power and an additional critical, but Charon can reduce this to two, and with the skills of Knights Dorint and Claudas from the legend deck you can also mitigate the counterblast cost of Phantom Blaster Dragon. In total that modifies the skill to counterblast 1 retire 2, which is much more reasonable overall than the text printed on the actual card. The same principles can be applied to Phantom Blaster's upgrade introduced as a promotional card in the manga, Gust Blaster Dragon. Moreover, Phantom Blaster's breakride remake from the upcoming G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon also requires a retire 3 cost for its breakride skill, and Charon is a practical necessity in the deck to mitigate the heavy cost of putting down four or more cards during the break ride turn.
Be mindful of Charon's role compared to other support options. It's certainly true that one could run a unit like Black-winged Swordbreaker or Darkbond Trumpeter to draw or superior call for card advantage, and then retire those units for an exchange that is functionally identical to retiring Charon. However, Charon does not have a cost attached to him, and compared to using Swordbreaker consolidates cards on the field rather than in the hand. Depending on the situation, standard draw and call support may be more desirable, as having occupied rearguard circles can be a disadvantage versus “The X,” Gear Chronicle and Link Joker decks; but having unoccupied rearguard circles can be even more dangerous versus the popular “Diablo” matchups, Heroic Saga Dragon and Narukami. It's best to use the Pitch Black Sage judiciously, adjusting your play based on the opposition. Charon can support a variety of divergently-envisioned Blaster decks, and will likely remain a staple for Shadow Paladin cardfighters for several formats to come. G-Legend Deck 01: The Dark “Ren Suzugamori,” will hit international shelves on June 19th, 2015.
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.
This week's information broadcast guest-starred Ishii Mark, seiyuu for Shindou Chrono in the ongoing anime series Cardfight!! Vanguard G. The broadcast was put on as a launch party for G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon,featuring a live box opening as well as a fight between Ishii Mark and mascot character Vangarou-kun. Ishii and Doctor O both wore party hats for the occasion, prompting the twenty thousand viewers to compare Doctor O to a squid in their comments. After the fight, the first commercial for G-CB01: Academy of Divas was shown, along with several pieces of upcoming merchandise related to Cardfight!! Vanguard G. As part of the Bermuda Summer Festival, fans in Japan will be able to cast their vote for their favorite Bermuda Triangle character from the new booster set in a popularity contest. A recording of the broadcast, including the featured fight and commercial, is provided below along with Ishii and Vangarou-kun's decklists.
After the fight, Doctor O unveiled one of the upcoming cards from Clan Booster 01: Academy of Divas, a remake of Bermuda △ Cadet Shizuku from 2012's Banquet of Divas.
The new card is a grade 1, Extraordinary Freshman Shizuku.
Like the original unit she's based on, Extraordinary Shizuku searches
for a grade 3. Her generation break 1 activates when she enters a state
of Harmony (represented as ♪♪), achieved by placing her in the same column as another unit or having that unit enter the same column as her. The moment she enters Harmony, Shizuku can
search the top 5 cards of her cardfighter's deck for a grade 3, add it
to hand and then shuffle that deck. Since this skill can only be used
after achieving generation break, Extraordinary Shizuku can't actually
bypass a gradelock like her original incarnation, but the skill can be
useful for acquiring stride material cards.
Extraordinary Freshman, Shizuku AUTO: (Vanguard/Rearguard circles): Harmony (When another of your units appears in the same column as this unit, during this turn, this unit becomes Harmony) AUTO: (Rearguard circle): Once per turn: Generation break 1: When this unit becomes Harmony, you may look at up to five cards from the top of your deck, search for up to one grade 3 card, reveal it to your opponent, put it into your handle, and shuffle that deck.
(Fight begins at 0:27:20 and ends at 0:57:00. The Academy of Divas commercial is at 1:10:04.)
In the course of the fight Ishii stumbled onto one of the Messiah deck's key combos for Arousal Messiah, around the 51 minute mark. By using White Dwarf Lady Battler's on-boost skill to unlock Arousal Messiah and give the boosted Gravity Well Lady Battler +4000 power, Ishii was then able to use Arousal's skill to stand Gravity Well and give her +2000 power during her attack. Although resting a unit is necessary to declare an attack, the attack does not end if the unit becomes stand during that battle. Though this may seem counterintuitive, it allowed Ishii to attack with Gravity Well for 22000 power while in a standing position, then attack with the still-standing Gravity Well in a second battle for 15000 power.
Despite these innovative plays, in general Ishii's command of the deck did not measure up to its extremely technical nature; on his initial Amnesty Messiah turn he used Amnesty's skill and chose to unlock his opponent's rearguards to reach the condition for Amnesty's second critical, even though he had seen Vangarou-kun drive check a perfect defense card earlier in the fight. Unlocking Vangarou-kun's rearguards also prevented Ishii from using Alter Ego Messiah during his opponent's following end phase, causing Amnesty to work against him in the long run.
Doctor O later unveiled two new products from Bushiroad's Cardfight!! Vanguard G merchandise line, a set of six character-themed strap lights, and a game pouch intended to carry a portable game system. The interior of the pouch features Shindou Chrono with Chronojet Dragon, and the exterior uses the same silver stride circle displayed on the backs of Japanese edition grade 4s.
Bushiroad's weekly information bulletins air every
Tuesday evening at
8:00 PM Japanese Standard Time. They first began in late January to
accommodate a new information distribution model for Cardfight!! Vanguard G, as the amount of card information covered in Monthly Bushiroad magazine decreased and was redirected to other routes of distribution. The previous week featured Morishita Shuuta (Nitta Shin) and Yanagita Junichi (Anjou Mamoru) in a fight demonstrating the strengths of the Murakumo and Kagerou decks supported by Sovereign Star Dragon.
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.
Ishii Mark's Link Joker deck Grade 4 (Generation zone) x2 Genesis Dragon, Amnesty Messiah
x2 Genesis Dragon, Judgement Messiah
x4 Nebula Dragon, Big Crunch Dragon Grade 3 x4 Alter Ego Messiah
x4 Neutron Star Lady Gunner Grade 2
x4 Gravity Well Lady Battler
x4 Arousal Messiah
x3 Sunset Edge, Duskblade Grade 1
x4 Flower Blooming in the Vacuum, Cosmolis
x4 Destiny Dealer
x2 Dark Metal Chameleon
x2 White Dwarf Lady Battler
x2 Breaker of Keys, Riddle Biter Grade 0
x1 Spawn of Spiral Nebula (FV)
x4 Asteroid Fenrir CT
x4 Quake Kick Pulse Monk CT
x4 Torn World Lady Healer HT
x4 Superstring Theory Beloved Girl DT
Vangarou-kun's Gold Paladin deck Grade 4 (Generation zone) x4 Golden Dragon, Spear Cross Dragon
x1 Galloping Golden Knight, Campbell
x2 Golden Dragon, Surge Point Dragon Grade 3
x4 Knight of Rising Sunshine, Gurguit
x3 Veteran Knight, Danvalo
x1 Salvation Lion, Grand Ezel Scissors Grade 2
x3 Knight of Far Arrows, Saphir
x2 Farmgal
x4 Holy Mage, Pwyll x2 Earth Elemental, Pokkle Grade 1
x4 Halo Shield, Mark
x4 Knight of Day Break's Light, Golbodok
x3 Knight of Morning's Shadow, Kimarcus
x3 Slaymy Grade 0
x1 Rising Lionet (FV)
x4 Air Raid Lion CT
x4 Peeping Rabbit DT
x4 Pharmacy Witch HT
x4 Flame of Victory CT
A commercial for the next month's issue of Monthly Bushiroad magazine has starred Yonaga Tsubasa in the role of Sendou Aichi, awakened from his sleep in the ongoing chapters of Itou Akira's Cardfight!! Vanguard manga. The current story thread concerns Aichi having been turned into a PSY Qualia zombie after losing a fight against another zombified character in a previous issue. PSY Qualia zombies approximately equate to the Link Joker chapter of the anime's Яeverse cardfighters, but originate from Ibuki Kouji and a partner antagonist "Cold Walker" rather than Void. Unlike Яeversed fighters, zombies are endowed with the PSY Qualia ability to see the future of a fight. The original commercial, along with a transcript and translation of Aichi's lines, is provided below.
While the anime presented a hypothetical scenario of Aichi being Яeversed in episode 144, this was never realized during the course of the Link Joker chapter's run. Previously Itou stated through Twitter that he first proposed the Яeverse concept to the anime staff; it's likely that he took influence from the anime's unrealized scenario. The Monthly Bushiroad commercial below provides a quick view of the upcoming chapters of both Cardfight!! Vanguard and Cardfight!! Vanguard G, as well as the issue's PR♥ISM-Duo promotional cards.
月刊ブシロード。 Monthly Bushiroad.
さあ、ファイトしましょうよ。僕と…ふふ。 Now, will you all fight? Against me...Haha.
新世代の彼だって僕を止められない。 Even the new generation cannot stop me.
聞こえる、白と黒のハーモニー。もう限界などないのです。 I can hear it, the Harmony of white and black. Soon, there will be no more limits!
イメージしてください。その先に見える、新たな世界を。 Please picture it. That which you saw before, a new world.
月刊ブシロード七月号。六月四日発売！ Monthly Bushiroad, July issue. On sale June 8th!
The Japanese edition of G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon went on sale just a few hours ago, and prices from both Japanese auctions and retailers are already stabilizing. Of all the cards in the set, the most alarming is G-BT03's print of Phantom Blaster Dragon; his average selling price has jumped to be the highest single in the game's history, at 5000~7000 yen per card. (approx. $40~56 at the current exchange rate.) This is more than the price of one box of Sovereign Star Dragon, and observations from Japanese buyers are that the inclusion rate of the set's two generation rares is at one of each generation rare per carton--one Phantom Blaster and one Amnesty per every sixteen boxes. If this ratio is true, it would be a massive departure from Generation Stride and Soaring Ascent of Gale & Blossom, where generation rares were distributed at the same rate as triple rares. Lagging behind Phantom Blaster are Amnesty Messiah and Aurageyser Dragon as the second most expensive cards from the set, going for 1500~2000 yen each.
The exorbitant prices for Phantom Blaster are derived from his synergy with multiple different Blaster deck types, including Phantom Blaster “Abyss,” who is generally regarded as the dominant deck of the pre-BT03 format. Both halves of the “Abyss” legion experienced a similar price jump earlier this month. However, running the Phantom breakride in “Abyss” has been brought under severe scrutiny from the first day the Blaster Dragon breakride was revealed. Doing so means surrendering virtually all forms of soulblast support, including Black-winged Swordbreaker and Darkheart Trumpeter. It also means losing access to Blaster Dark Revenger and Revenger “Abyss” for most of the game, neutering Revengers' devastating field control options and ability to shut down a vast number of first vanguard-centric strategies. Other Blaster decks are also on the rise, with triple rare playsets of Phantom Blaster Overlord reaching a 2000 yen high, and Gust Blaster Dragon rising to 1200 yen apiece.
In other news, Duel Portal, retailers Cardshop Ogre and Card Kingdom have all revealed merchandise for G-Title Booster 01: Touken Ranbu -ONLINE-, including eight character-specific sleeves from Bushiroad's Mini Sleeve Collection and several deckboxes. Six playmat designs (pictured below) are also being produced for the set, intended to double as mousepads. The Touken Ranbu booster was originally announced as an April Fool's joke by Bushiroad of Japan, and later clarified to be a real product made in association with DMM and Nitro+. The booster will feature the characters of Touken Ranbu as part of the unique clan "Touken Ranbu," and will be compatible with all of the cards produced in the existing Cardfight!! Vanguard trading card game.
While the booster set has been designed to attract a new audience to Vanguard, fan reactions across the globe have been mixed. Some fans have expressed displeasure with devoting a booster set to what has been described as an opposite gender counterpart to Bermuda Triangle, when that space could be devoted to an existing clan. Others have criticized the Touken Ranbu clan as being out of place in the greater context of Cardfight!! Vanguard's world, particularly with respect to the planet Cray. But still other fans find an appeal to the cross-promotion that would otherwise be absent from the game, and in Japan boxes of the title booster have already been promised as prizes at several upcoming VGCS tournaments.
The set's status in English-speaking countries is unknown, as DMM lacks an international presence and licensing the set for the western market could prove difficult. Bushiroad Inc. does have experience with bringing over these types of properties in its older card game Weiβ Schwarz, but the possibility remains that one of Cardfight!! Vanguard's clans will remain exclusive to the Japanese edition. Touken Ranbu -ONLINE- will go on sale in Japan on July 17th.
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.
This morning Bushiroad of Japan's weekly information bulletin guest starred seiyuu Morishima Shuuta (voice of Nitta Shin) and Yanagita Junichi (voice of Anjou Mamoru) in a featured fight between Shin's Yasuie and Mamoru's Dragonic Blademaster decks. The broadcast also revealed two upcoming promotional sleeves from the Get! Treasure Campaign, featuring Deity of the Evening Moon Tsukuyomi and Death Star-vader “∞” Glendios from G-FC01: Fighter's Collection 2015. The sleeves will go out in early June. Doctor O also took the opportunity to introduce several cards for both Murakumo and Kagerou from Sovereign Star Dragon, but these announcements were preempted three hours earlier by Japanese fans leaking the remaining cards of the set, much to the company's chagrin. The full video of the broadcast, including the fight, is presented below.
(Note that there is an audio desynch in the below video, and a brief interruption at the 43 minute mark. This is a consequence of recording the broadcast as it was originally airing.)
The fight between Morishima and Yanagita begins at 13:08 (standup at 15:44) in the video and ends at 48:28. The decklists used by them are provided below. Yanagita checked more triggers overall than Morishima, giving him considerable freedom with the use of his hand and taking early damage. Morishima initially got more setup off of striding first, superior calling two copies of his first vanguard Onifundou with Yasuie's skill and using two of their soulblast skills to return them to hand to gain 20000 shield, while also calling a unit from the top three cards of the deck to replace them. (This would be a net +4, but the replacement units called by the Onifundou copies return to the bottom of the deck at the end of the turn, mitigating it down to a net +2; Morishima averted this by calling Cat Devil with Onifundou and putting it into soul, still taking the negative but gaining soul that could be used for his remaining Onifundou next turn. Making his third turn a +2 in card advantage overall, discounting draw triggers.)
Yanagita retaliated with Blademaster's on-stride skill to retire the booster Ataka, comboing this to his rearguard Soheyl's autoskill to give him +5000 power. (As this only activates when a rearguard in the same column is put into the drop zone, later retires were not applicable to Soheyl.) Using the stride Divine Dragon Knight Mustafa, he then retired Tokubei and gave Mustafa an on-hit unflip. With Twilight Arrow's counterblast, Yanagita then retired the Onifundou that remained on the field, neutralizing the advantage Morishima had built up in the previous turn. Yanagita then forced him to five damage in that turn, and with only one unit in play, to meet the conditions for Homura Raider during the stride step Morishima was forced to clone his draw trigger Cat Rouge. And when Morishima attempted to go on the offensive, Yanagita guarded with the promo card Lizard Soldier Belogue--Belogue's skill allows it to retire an opponent's rested rearguard during the guard step if the guard is successful, meaning that Yanagita could completely nullify Homura Raider's skill by retiring one of the rested Cat Rogues, preventing Homura Raider from returning three units with the same name to the deck and restanding. Since Homura Raider had already received drive check -1 from its own skill, it wouldn't even get a single triple drive, let alone four drive checks; retiring Cat Rogue would incur a net -4 for the entire turn against Morishima. Morishima-as-Shin had to beg Yanagita-as-Mamoru not to do it in order for them to show Homura Raider's skill on camera, illustrating the vast disparity in support between Kagerou and Murakumo.
Yanagita obliged, retiring Fujino and using a Protect Orb Dragon to achieve perfect defense against Homura Raider. Although Morishima enjoyed a brief window with which to win the game on his second twin drive, failing to check a critical trigger prevented him from sealing it, causing Yanagita to win on his following turn.
Morishima's game was incredibly skillful overall. By standing his boosters and giving them power with his stand triggers, he was better able to take advantage of Ushimitsu Train's double superior call to clone Tokubei twice. His main misplay was fielding and then targeting units which only had one or less copies remaining in deck, in this case Nyudo Cloud. Doing otherwise would have given him two attacks, one for 12000 power and another 34000 power. His second was in using Fujino to attack the vanguard instead of the rearguard, exposing him to Belogue's skill, which otherwise can't be used while protecting rearguards. However, in general there was little else that could be done on his end of the game to fight back once Yanagita swung the game in his favor with Mustafa, Twilight Arrow and Soheyl. Making his one opening in the opponent's defenses with Homura Raider's second attack was his one chance to end the game.
Doctor O proceeded with an overview of several cards from Sovereign Star Dragon, including Dragon Knight Emad, Mustafa, Homura Raider and Hidden Scroll. However, all of these units were already spoiled by this time thanks to fan efforts. After a brief overview of the currently ongoing Cardfight!! Vanguard G the above sleeves were unveiled, and Doctor O closed out the broadcast alongside his guests imploring viewers to "Ride KYUN Vanguard!"
Almost seventeen thousand people tuned in to view the live broadcast
during its run. Bushiroad's weekly information bulletins air every
Tuesday evening at
8:00 PM Japanese Standard Time. They first began in late January to
accommodate a new information distribution model for Cardfight!! Vanguard G, as the amount of card information covered in Monthly Bushiroad magazine decreased and was redirected to other routes of distribution. The previous week's broadcast introduced Spear Cross Dragon and several other units from Sovereign Star Dragon, and the week before covered Deletor cards from the same set. Next week's episode will be a special G-BT03 release party guest starring Ishii Mark, seiyuu for Shindou Chrono.
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Charon's initial skill is lifted from Steam Breath Dragon of Generation Stride. By revealing a grade 3 from your hand when Charon is called, you can search your deck for a grade 3 unit with "Blaster Dark" in its card name. You're then required to discard a card from hand to make the exchange neutral, but this doesn't have to be either of the grade 3s the skill involved. Several aspects of Charon have been prepatched to avoid exploitation. The first aspect is that Charon's on-call skill only works when called from the hand, so superior calling him with Dark Night Maiden Macha or Claret Sword Dragon won't work. The second is that because Charon only searches for grade 3 Blaster Darks, you can't search out Blaster Dark, Dark Revenger or Dark Revenger “Abyss.” Hence it's not possible to bypass grade 2 gradelock with Charon. His continuous skill allows Charon to be used as two rearguards to support the cost of a retire skill; this skill is almost identical to that of Cutting-Edge Knight David, but instead of being a generation break, Charon requires a Blaster vanguard to function.
