Cardfight!! Vanguard Weekly Card Update #2

Welcome back to the weekly instalment of Cardfight!! Vanguard news, and this week is really exciting. The Touken Ranbu clan booster has been announced as being released in English on 30/08/15, and it looks as though they will be mechanically unusual. Further, we have news of more cards from G-BT04, as well as the reveal of a new promo and reprints of two older promos. I’ll talk about Touken Ranbu in a little more depth following the more general news.

Promos, Reprints and Cray Elementals!

Recently, the news has come out that some promos are being reprinted, but currently the time frame is unknown. Importantly, these include the Dark Irregular units, Psychic of Dust Izaya and Psychic of Ash, Hadar. Izaya is the legion mate of the soon to-be-released Psychic of Storm, Rigil from G-BT03, so it is likely that it should come either contemporaneously with G-BT03 or shortly after, so that Rigil can be played more easily.

Exciting news comes for players of clans such as Granblue, who have not had a perfect guard printed for ages, as a new Cray Elemental perfect guard has been revealed! Light Elemental, Sunny lacks the usual G perfect guard ability of un-flipping damage, instead making G Assist less painful. When used as the cost for G Assist, all fighters draw a card, which is good if you’re desperate and grade stuck. However, the cost of both removing a Sentinel from your deck and letting the opponent draw is hefty, so this ability will clearly only be used in the worst of situations. Depending on how much he costs when released, he might be good for budget players, as he reduces the cost of Sentinels when creating new decks.

Genesis receive a new Stride option, Goddess of the Skies, Dione, which will benefit many decks. When her attack hits a vanguard, you can soul blast 3, look at three cards from the top of your deck, add one to your hand and put the other two into the soul. This works out as being a soul blast of one for a +1 in card advantage, as well as helping to activate the effects of cards such as Witch of Ravens, Chamomile or Midday Regalia, Hemera. As she is only a R, she should be widely available, and most players will find space to run at least one copy. Boosting this Deity of Blacksmith, Hephaestus means you still get to soul charge 3 so it’s essentially a free card in hand. In the lore of this card it also mentions someone named “Goddess of Hearths, Hestia” who is most likely going to be a new grade 3 in G-BT04.

Black Slice, Harut is a great Angel Feather support unit: at a counterblast of one, when she is boosted when attacking a vanguard, she can look at the top two cards of the deck, add one into the damage zone, return the other to the bottom of the deck, and then call a face-up card from the damage zone to the rear-guard. This is excellent in every Angel Feather deck. Players who use cards like Cleanup Celestial, Ramiel ‘Яeverse’ will enjoy the additional chances to set up the damage zone, while cards such as Thousand Ray Pegasus will be powered up by the card entering the damage zone. Coupled with the small cost of only one counter blast, I can see this being highly sought after by all Angel Feather players.

Touken Ranbu

Touken Ranbu feature two new mechanics, which are ‘Shinken Hissatsu’ and ‘MVP’. ‘Skinken Hissatsu’ is essentially a Limit Break 3, but can feature on rear-guards as well as the vanguard, while ‘MVP’ is a term used to denote mutually exclusive abilities. So far, the effects of cards with ‘MVP’ are all on-hit abilities, but the most unusual factor is that only one ‘MVP’ effect may be activated each turn. If your vanguard Hotarumaru uses his skill, then your rear-guard Nakigitsune cannot use his. This forces players to make difficult decisions to get the most out of the deck. A few of the clan’s forerunners have been revealed, including one which can be an 11k attacker when alone in his column.

Kashuu Kiyomitsu is a rather unusual forerunner. He is going to be excellent in counterblast heavy decks, as when he boosts and there are no face up cards in the damage zone, he can counter charge one and gain 3k power. If the attack hits, you draw a card and put him into the soul. He therefore looks to be extremely useful – at worst he is only a 5k boost, but when he is used optimally, he replaces himself, acts as a 8k boost and unflips a damage. As yet, we don’t know whether the deck uses large amounts of counterblast, but his early to mid game potential is not to be ignored. Players might like to use multiple copies of him for his late-game utility, as he can serve as an 8k booster with added utility.

It is no secret that Bushiroad has been attempting to make stand triggers more viable, and Aizen Kunitoshi certainly seems to be a valiant effort. If he is in the back row when a grade 4 or greater vanguard with the MVP ability attacks, he can stand himself and another rear-guard in the same column. His power is not great, but pairing him with a rear-guard Jiroutachi creates a 17k column, enough to force a 10k shield from most vanguards. He is best used in conjunction with the stride unit Hotarumaru.

Hotarumaru is a G-unit with the MVP ability, but with a powerful re-standing effect. At the cost of a G-persona blast and resting five rear guards, he can re-stand when he hits a vanguard, losing two drive checks. This means that the stand trigger Aizen is quite valuable for the deck, both as a rear-guard and when drive checked. A few more cards have been revealed, most with unusual and interesting effects – they look to be quite the exciting clan!

Come back next week for more Vanguard!! updates!

Cardfight Vanguard singles are available to purchase at Big orbit Cards: Cardfight Vanguard