Official Vanguard anime reboot website opens with new character designs and profiles, Kyou uses Murakumo

The official Cardfight!! Vanguard Origin anime website is now fully operational, replacing its splash page with basic character profiles and an introduction to the upcoming "Origin" series. Episodes of the rebooted anime are now known as "Images" rather than "Turns" (G) or "Rides," (original series) and the first episode will be Image 1 "Stand up, Vanguard!!" 

The new character profiles give us high-quality images of the rebooted character designs, as well as several details that put the new anime more in line with the manga it's based on. Of note is that the new character Kawanami Minami is not listed in the characters section with the other Foo Fighters.

• Morikawa is said to be a member of the Hitsue Cardfight Club advised by his teacher Mark Whiting, and that the club is in trouble because of his poor grades. This is a plot lifted directly from chapter 4 of the manga, where Alfred Early debuts.
• Yahagi Kyou uses the Murakumo clan. In the original manga Kyou used Nubatama, and his Nubatama units were later made into Murakumo cards as part of a general discontinuation of Nubatama in late 2011/early 2012. In the first anime, Kyou used Spike Brothers.
• Miwa uses Nova Grappler, much like in the manga.
• Morikawa uses Spike Brothers, "and others." In the manga he played a General Seifried deck, and was seen using Savage King in the first pages of chapter 1.
• Emi's, Shin's, and Nagisa's decks are listed as a mystery, rather than as Bermuda Triangle, Murakumo, and Nova Grappler.
• Daimonji Gouki's card shop is given as "Voyage" rather than "Handsome." Gouki is said to be second place in the Asia Circuit tournament.
• Mitsusada Kenji is also a regular at Voyage, and third place in the Asia Circuit.
• Souryuu Leon is an elementary schooler who uses Aqua Force and "dominated the Asia Circuit," but no other concrete information is given about him. Leon, Kenji, Gouki, and Nagisa are all listed under "NwO - Nagisa with Others." 
• Aichi is in his third year of middle school, Kai and Misaki in their first years of high school, and Kamui is in sixth grade. Ren is in his first year of high school, Asaka in her second, Tetsu in his third, and Kyou is also in sixth grade.

Image 1: Stand up, Vanguard!!

"A frail boy named Sendou Aichi is robbed of his most important card by his classmate Morikawa Katsumi. Aichi chases Morikawa into the card shop known as Card Capital."

NicoNico Live, NicoNico Channel, and Ani-TV will all be broadcasting the new Cardfight!! Vanguard anime series, every Thursday beginning May 10th. NNL will air the show at 8:00 PM, while NNC will air it at 8:30 PM. Ani-TV is still determining its air time.

The new anime series, codenamed "Origin," will begin airing May 5th, 2018, on TV Tokyo and affiliated stations. It will be simulcast with English subtitles on YouTube and Crunchyroll, and unlike past seasons will be in a late night to early morning timeslot. Trial Deck 01: Sendou Aichi and Trial Deck 02: Kai Toshiki will launch in Japanese May 11th, 2018, and in English June 8th, 2018. BT01: UNITE! TEAM Q4! will launch in Japan May 25th, 2018, and in English June 22nd, 2018.

New character designs

Bushiroad announces new sleeves: Daifuku & Mikan

In the 26th episode of Weekly Bites Z, host Doctor O revealed that April will see the launch of two new card sleeves for the Cardfight!! Vanguard TCG. The first is the white-and-purple "Daifuku" sleeve, inspired by the bean jam-filled rice cake of the same name, and the second is "Mikan," inspired by the Japanese orange. The sleeves are a follow up to the previously-released "Mint Chocolate" and "Strawberry" sleeves, launched back in late 2017. They are available solely through the Get! Treasure Campaign, a promotional campaign in Japan where fighters can exchange tickets packed into booster packs and boxes for limited edition items. These will be available for exchange online beginning April 6th, and at through shops beginning April 13th. Overseas fighters will have to buy them secondhand; typically GT Campaign items resell for $13~20.

V-Extra Booster 01: The Destructive Roar announced

April 3rd, 2018. In the 26th episode of Weekly Bites Z, Doctor O announced the formal title of the upcoming Extra Booster, V-EB01: The Destructive Roar. The first Extra Booster of the Standard format will launch June 29th 2018 in Japan, feature 66 cards of support for Spike Brothers, Tachikaze, and Megacolony, with its cover cards being General Seifried, Ravenous Dragon Gigarex, and Machining Spark Hercules.

The set will feature 3 Vanguard Rares, 6 Triple Rares, 9 Double Rares, 15 Rares, and 33 Commons, with 3 Special Vanguard Rare alternate prints and 3 Origin Rare versions of cards, which will use their original artwork from the previous version of Cardfight!! Vanguard.

General Seifried is illustrated by HMK84, Gigarex by DaisukeIzuka, and Machining Spark Hercules by ToMo. Spike Brothers will be a Force clan, Tachikaze an Accel clan, and Megacolony a Protect clan; Tachikaze will be one of the clans to receive Front Triggers.

Juggernaut Maximum and Machining Stag Beetle will also be remade in the set, with new illustrations by their original illustrators Maekawa Yuichi and Tanimeso.

There will also be a small bonus, reprints of Poison Sickle Mutant Deity Overwhelm, Great Villain Dirty Picaro, and Absolute Ruler Gluttony Dogma, included in booster boxes of The Destructive Roar. These strides will not be usable in Standard format, per the notice at the bottom.

Dragonic Overlord revealed in Weekly Bites stream

April 3rd, 2018. Today on the 26th episode of Weekly Bites Z, host Doctor O revealed the upcoming cover for V-Trial Deck 02: Kai Toshiki. As suggested yesterday in Card Gamer magazine, Dragonic Overlord has a powerful self-standing skill that can easily end the game when applied properly.

ACT [Vanguard/Rearguard Circle] Once per turn: [Soulblast 1] During this turn, this unit gets Power + 10000.
AUTO [Vanguard Circle] Once per turn: When this unit's attack hits, you may [Counterblast 1, discard 2 cards from your hand] to Stand this unit, during this turn, it gets Drive -1.

The card combines different aspects of past Overlords, primarily the original Trial Deck Overlord of seven years' past and his infamous crossride Dragonic Overlord The End. Being able to power up in any circle matches the original Overlord's dual vanguard-rearguard utility, while being able to stand regardless of whether he hits a vanguard or rearguard gives him the immense pressure of The End. Like many of Vanguard's earlier restanders, Overlord only gets 3 drive checks total instead of 4, and is a net -1 in card advantage. If used in combination with the current card of the day, Vortex Dragon, Overlord can attack a rearguard first to rob the opponent of an interceptor and power up Vortex.

Four copies of Dragonic Overlord will come in V-TD02: Kai Toshiki, which launches in Japan May 11th and in the United States June 8th. One copy per Trial Deck will be illustrated by Dragonic Overlord's original designer and illustrator Itou Akira, while the other  three will be illustrated by Daisuke Izuka, who also did Overlord's BT01/004 art from Descent of the King of Knights.

The Trial Deck will also come with a set of three Force Markers, one of which will feature Dragonic Overlord on it.

Today's Card Analysis: Vortex Dragon

Flavor text: "Its Burning Hell will annihilate all that exists."

The Japanese card of the day is our first card to be revealed out of V-BT01: UNITE! TEAM Q4! and the first grade 3 of the format to not possess the Imaginary Gift ability, the Kagerо̄ unit Vortex Dragon. This card is a single Rare with a variable set of skills that work well in both the vanguard and rearguard circles.

Activate [Vanguard Circle]: [Once per turn]: [Counterblast 2] Choose 1 of your opponent's Rearguards, retire it, if you have 5 cards in your damage zone, discard your entire hand, and retire all of your opponent's rearguards.
Automatic [Vanguard/Rearguard Circle]: When your opponent's rearguard is retired during your turn, during this turn, this unit gets Power +5000.

Vortex Dragon is a remake of the megablast unit of the same name, who seven years ago could retire three of the opponent's rearguards for counterblast 5 soulblast 8. (Newer cardfighters might instead recall his direct-damage-dealing legion remake Vortex Dragonewt, or his stride incarnation Vortex Desire.) If the new Vortex is a template for what megablast remakes will look like in the days to come, then it's a welcome change: the new card is infinitely more playable than its namesake.

For most of the game Vortex functions like a grade 3 version of the Start Deck card Dragon Knight Nehalem, able to retire any one of the opponent's units at will, and on top of that can become an 18000 base for the turn that makes a nice 28k column with Dragon Monk Gojo. Once you go to 5 damage Vortex takes on the game-ending properties of Dragonic Nouvelle Vague, retiring the opponent's entire field and becoming anywhere from an 18 to a 38k alone depending on the number slain.

(Once the Accel clans are out, Vortex could theoretically go as high as 68k unboosted depending on how many extra circles the opponent has.)

Discarding one's hand can range from devastating to a noncost, as it's entirely possible to use the skill while having no hand at all. By the endgame both you and the opponent will have used up much of your hands defending, so you could simply call any rearguards you need to and find yourself with nothing to discard. Outside of that it's a skill that has to be used carefully depending on what you're up against, as while it may be safe versus Nova Grappler, a clan with longevity like Oracle Think Tank or even the new draw-heavy Royals may simply shrug off the play.

Jarron, Sage of 28k.

Vortex's second skill is the more important one, as it makes him an effective rearguard that when paired up with Gojo can swing for numbers comparable to Jarron, the major beater of the Royal Paladin clan that's proven so important in the Start Deck demos. Note that Vortex's +5k is not conditional on a unit being retired by an effect, or even during the main phase. If you attack an opponent's rearguard in the battle phase and it retires as a result of battle, Vortex will also power up that way; considering that Dragonic Overlord in the upcoming Trial Deck is implied by Card Gamer magazine to have a self-standing skill, and that past Overlords like the TD01/001 or BT15/004 stood by attacking or hitting a rearguard, Vortex will probably have some mean battle phase synergy with the new support.

Not having access to the Gift ability is a significant trade to be making in the deckbuilding process, but what you get in exchange is a rearguard column that stays competitive with what's on offer over in Royal Paladin. 28k in particular is one of the most important thresholds of the new format, because going up the list of magic numbers it's the last value that can be guarded with a single guardian. Only Heal Triggers have 20k shield in the new format, so more often you'll see it defended with two or more cards, and if not then you've depleted an irreplaceable resource from the opponent's hand.

All that said, Vortex is still a single Rare and he has more than just Overlord to contend and coexist with. It's just as important that Vortex Dragon stand up to Dragonic Waterfall, Kagerо̄'s high-rarity cover card for V-BT01 that's almost certainly going to come with Gift and a much more powerful vanguard circle ability.

Vortex Dragon is designed by Itou Akira and illustrated by KAZTO FURUYA, known for illustrating many G-era units like Metapulsar Huang-long.

The previous Japanese card of the day was Knight Squire, Allen.

V-Booster Set 01: UNITE! TEAM Q4! will launch in Japan May 25th, 2018, and in English June 22nd, 2018. It will be preceded by V-Trial Deck 01: Sendou Aichi, and V-TD02: Kai Toshiki, launching in Japanese May 11th, 2018, and in English June 8th, 2018. Both Trial Decks will be accompanied by a new sleeve based on the "Imaginary Gift" design. The accompanying new anime series, codenamed "Origin," will begin airing May 5th, 2018, on TV Tokyo and affiliated stations. It will be simulcast with English subtitles on YouTube and Crunchyroll.

Tachikaze & Aqua Force will have Front Triggers, Bushiroad wants you to play Pale Moon in Premium Standard

You can't make me.

A page from Card Gamer magazine gives insight into how 14 of Standard Vanguard's 24 clans will interact with the Imaginary Gift mechanic. The image is rough, but an approximate summary of each clan's role is given below.

As a reminder, the three Imaginary Gifts are:

• Force - When your grade 3 unit with the Force ability is placed on the vanguard circle you add a Force marker to any of your circles, and for the rest of the game anything moved into that circle gets +10000 power during your turn. These decks emphasize "balance."
• Accel - When your grade 3 unit with the Protect ability is placed on the vanguard circle, you add an Accel marker to the left of your leftmost front rearguard circle. That marker becomes a new rearguard circle, and anything you call to it gets +10000 power during your turn, but it cannot be boosted. The next time you ride a grade 3, you add another Accel marker to the right of your rightmost circle, then you return to the left for the instance after that, and alternate endlessly. These decks emphasize "attack."
• Protect - When your grade 3 unit with the Protect ability is placed on the vanguard circle, you add a Protect marker to your hand. The Protect marker acts as a perfect guard while in hand; you can guard with it to discard a card to negate attacks. It has no grade nor other unit information, and cannot exist outside the hand or guardian circle, so after use it returns to the Gift zone. These decks emphasize "defense."

Oracle Think Tank - Protect
The Gift Marker in hand counts for the purposes of Oracle, increasing your hand size to make meeting the conditions easier. Because the clan draws so many cards, it can pay the cost of using Protect Markers as perfect guards again and again, nullifying countless attacks. Just defending won't win you the game though, so OraThin will have a powerful attacker to close games with.

Granblue - Protect
For the clan that focuses on resurrecting cards out of the drop zone, the discard aspect of Protect meshes well with its play style. First you discard units to block attacks, then pull those same units out next turn to use offensively.

Royal Paladin - Force
Force synergizes with Royal Paladin's overall strategy of calling rearguards from the deck, as those rearguards then have a basic power bonus to work with even if they're not boosted. Doubling up on the number of Force markers on one circle is recommended, making rearguards that are as threatening as the vanguard.

Spike Brothers - Force
Spike Brothers also call from the deck, but emphasize repeated calling mid-battle phase. You can set up 2+ Force markers on a rearguard circle, then structure your attacks so that this circle repeatedly empties after battle and gets a new unit called into it that will then gain the 20k power boost.

Shadow Paladin - Force
This clan calls from the deck in order to later sacrifice its rearguards to power up the vanguard. In the new series, this can be used to either strengthen the rearguards for their attacks before you sacrifice them, or to focus on making the vanguard overwhelming.

Tachikaze - Accel
This is a highly technical clan that superior calls units by retiring them, which Accel enhances by giving you additional rearguards to get your timing right with. This clan is also one of the few to have access Front Triggers.

Aqua Force - Accel
Aqua Force emphasizes making additional attacks and resolving skills based on the number of attacks made, so Accel is a natural fit for the clan because it increases both the number of times you can attack and the ways in which you can structure those attacks. The additional power makes those attacks matter more. (As opposed to Tidal Assault swinging for 16000 --> 4000  at 13k bases in BT09 format.) Aqua Force will also have Front Triggers in the new format.

Megacolony - Protect
This clan focuses on preventing the opponent's units from standing, controlling their board by reducing their number of attacks each turn, and reducing their hand size by forcing them to call over paralyzed units. Protect keeps the opponent on total lockdown, as whatever attack they can make is negated.

Dark Irregulars - Protect
The old image of DI as a Protect clan would be "Blade Wing," but what kind of ability could that become in the new series? The old DI was themed around increasing power by increasing the soul, and with Protect they can become a "soulcharge to increase power" deck that does not run Sentinels. Protect eliminates the risk of never seeing a perfect guard due to soulcharging it.

Kagerou - Force
Kagerou is a control deck which in the endgame finishes the opponent off by standing their own vanguard. Placing Force on the vanguard circle plays to that winning image. You should look forward to what Dragonic Overlord's skillset will be.

Dimension Police - Force
DP revolves around powering up the vanguard to achieve its goals, so Force is the gift that best supports their strategy. You can look forward to a Commander Laurel-type vanguard stand ability in the future.

Nova Grappler - Accel
This clan's theme is attacking multiple times with powerful rearguards, so Accel is an obvious match. The issue promises that Front Triggers are going to be a big deal for Nova Grappler.

Murakumo - Accel
Murakumo's strategy is to call "shadow clones" of units already on the field from the deck, then send them to the bottom of the deck in the end phase, preserving them for next turn with hit-and-run tactics. However, up through the end of the G series there was a further emphasis on attacking from the back row. Due to the nature of Accel creating additional frontrow circles, this is no longer possible. On the other hand, it was also possible to run out of circles to call to, unless the Murakumo fighter deliberately held back. Accel fixes this flaw by ensuring there's always a new empty circle every time you ride a grade 3. Thus, you can attack many times without depleting your hand.

Pale Moon - Accel
Since Pale Moon attacks multiple times by pulling cards in and out of the soul during battle, Accel's power boost and additional circle is a good fit for the clan's technical play style. You can also use the additional circle to play around situations where you would originally have retired units that you would call over.

Additionally, the article recommends taking advantage of Pale Moon's unique characteristics in Premium Standard format, where fighters will have access to the G Zone as well as Gifts. It makes special mention of Masquerade Master Harri and Dreamiy Axel Milward. Harri can call up to three units from soul on-attack, making use of the additional frontrow rearguard circles, and Milward calls two units out of the soul in the main phase, which can likewise make use of that fourth/fifth circle. The power buffs from these cards also help compensate for the lack of boost on Accel circles.

The Gift mechanic will first be commercially available in Trial Deck 01: Sendou Aichi and Trial Deck 02: Kai Toshiki, launching in Japanese May 11th, 2018, and in English June 8th, 2018. They will be accompanied by a new sleeve based on the Imaginary Gift design. The first Booster Set of the Standard format, BT01: UNITE! TEAM Q4! will launch in Japan May 25th, 2018, and in English June 22nd, 2018. The accompanying new anime series, codenamed "Origin," will begin airing May 5th, 2018, on TV Tokyo and affiliated stations. It will be simulcast with English subtitles on YouTube and Crunchyroll.

Today's Card analysis: Knight Squire, Allen

The first card of the day of Vanguard's Standard format is "Knight Squire, Allen," from V-Trial Deck 01: Sendou Aichi. While many are already familiar with the Allen featured in the Stardrive Dragon Start Deck deck, the Trial Deck version of the card has an entirely different loadout--namely, he's not a vanilla.

AUTO [Rear-guard Circle]: When placed, by paying [Counterblast 1], call up to card of equal or lower grade than your vanguard from hand to Rear-guard circle. If you called, draw 1 card, and this unit gets Power +3000 until end of turn.

The vanilla Allen distributed in V-SD01.

The new Allen establishes something fighters have suspected about Standard ever since the power difference between Trial Deck and Start Deck Wingal was revealed: the standard power for a grade 1 in the new format is 8000 rather than the 7k suggested by SD01 and SD02. This is important because it means grade 1s have scaled with the new base power of grade 3s--a 13000 crossride base is normal in Standard. Implicitly, it also means we haven't seen what a real vanilla looks like in the new format; it's possible that vanilla grade 1s are now 9k, or like their grade 2 counterparts simply have a higher shield value than their effect equivalents.

As for Allen's actual skill, he essentially attaches a counterblast cost to what would have been a normal call in order to add a draw effect on top of it. This is similar to how the Alfred Early previewed at Bushiroad's March conference was set up; Royal Paladin as a whole may have a new signature mechanic of calling from hand and then drawing off of the call. This encourages Royal fighters to conserve their calls and not rush in, instead calling at key moments and rewarding them for tight play.

Early also has an on-place call-draw skill.

For example, a fighter that opens 2 Allens in a game may want to wait until they have enough counterblast to call 1 Allen, use his skill to call the second, and activate that Allen's skill to call a third card, drawing off of each call and ending up with a serviceable pair of 11k boosters/attackers.

When paired with a unit like Knight of Devotion Belgius--a grade 2 that becomes 13k as long as you have a grade 3 or greater vanguard--Allen makes a 24k line, forcing the opponent to guard with either their 15k-shield critical or 20k-shield heal triggers if they don't want to end up blocking with more than one card.

 

Knight of Devotion, Belgius.

At the end of the turn Allen will revert to being a humble 8k, but that's the best base he could have in this format. Barring any other units turning up to compete for his spots, the go-to Royal Grade 1 lineup right now is looking like this;

x4 Strong Knight, Runoria (Perfect Guard)
x4 Wingal
x4 Knight Squire, Allen

Of note is that the final grade 1 revealed in the Start Deck, Radical Knight Anil, is known to be a base 7000 that gains 3000 when he attacks. Even if Anil becomes an 8k in the final Trial Deck, Allen can functionally do his job and then some.

Knight Squire Allen is #008 in the Sendou Aichi Trial Deck, and is designed by Itou Akira and illustrated by Koga Azusa. (古賀あずさ) Koga is also known for illustrating Genesis' "Bowstring of Heaven and Earth, Artemis" and Great Nature's "Acorn Master."

Trial Deck 01: Sendou Aichi and Trial Deck 02: Kai Toshiki will launch in Japanese May 11th, 2018, and in English June 8th, 2018. They will be accompanied by a new sleeve based on the "Imaginary Gift" design. The first Booster Set of the Standard format, BT01: UNITE! TEAM Q4! will launch in Japan May 25th, 2018, and in English June 22nd, 2018.

The accompanying new anime series, codenamed "Origin," will begin airing May 5th, 2018, on TV Tokyo and affiliated stations. It will be simulcast with English subtitles on YouTube and Crunchyroll.