Cardfight!! Vanguard Weekly Card Update #30
Welcome again to the weekly Vanguard update. We finished off all the Technical Booster cards last week so now it’s time to look deeper into the future with the next booster set, G Booster 6 Transcension of Blade and Blossom.
Neo Nectar are the first up with their new Grade 3, Centaurea Flower Maiden, Ihnes. This lady shows us once again the power of Bloom with her ability allowing you to get some extra shield in preparation for your opponent’s next turn. When Inhes’ Bloom is triggered (By having another copy of her landing on a rear-guard circle) it gives all the other copies of her the ability to go to the bottom of the deck then look at the top five cards for one with Bloom and put it into your hand. Now if you want the Bloom cards in your hand a little earlier then you also get a chance to get one when you ride her; When she hits the Vanguard circle you can CB1 and SB1 to look at the top five again and search for a Bloom to put in your hand. Ihnes is a really good support Grade 3 for Ahsha and even has potential to be the main boss in a lower budget Neo Nectar deck. Though maybe people will just want her for her beautiful artwork.
Neos also get a nice perfect guard. Remember all the Technical bros getting the G perfect guard and the special G perfect guard with the extra abilities? Well it seems that’s going to be a thing with all clans now. Neo Nectar get Cherry Blossom Blizzard Maiden, Lilga who has the Bloom keyword, making her a great target for Ihnes to put to the hand. Lilga’s Bloom costs a CB1 but with that it allows you to put all of the cards with the same name into the hand. This gives you a nice opportunity to use Lilga offensively until something better comes along and then pop her back in the hand for a quick defend. This works so well with Ihnes that you could easily of had all your perfect guards in your hand at some point. If you quickly swap your Vanguard to Ahsha and are using Early-flowering Maiden, Pia that will allow you to put the perfect guards back into your deck, allowing for more perfect guard searching!
We have a similar card to Ihnes for Royal Paladin with Model Knight, Orhan. Similar to Ihnes, when he is placed on the Vanguard circle you can CB1 and SB1 to search your top five cards for a card with Brave and put it into your hand. His other ability is very different to Ihnes’s though. With a GB1 and if his Brave is active (Meaning you need to have three or less cards in your hand for it to be active) he gives the whole front row +3000 power which may not seem like much but that is even in your opponent’s turn so the more he’s attacked the harder it will be to hit him. This will work great against Aqua Force with their continuous yet weak attacks. As well as Ihnes I feel you can make a budget deck with Orhan as your boss if you were looking for a more defensive Royal Paladin deck.
If you are going for the Altmile build though then you might want Counterattack Knight, Slayman. This trusty Grade 2 has a GB1 skill that allows you to CB1 and drop a card from hand when attacking to search your deck for a Grade 2 and bring it onto the field with an extra +2000 power. He doesn’t eat up the soul like Benizel and doesn’t need to be boosted like Knight of Twin Sword but he does need Altmile as the Vanguard and dropping a card for it may seem questionable, but wait! His skills don’t end there. He also has the GB1 Brave ability that gives him an extra +3000 power as long as Altmile is your Vanguard and like Orhan’s skill it even works on your opponent’s turn, which will annoy your opponent when they thought the only unit they would be able to hit is your 9k rear-guard. They’ll be dreading Slayman by the end of the game.
“But Brave is such an awkward condition to meet” I hear you screaming, well luckily there is a solution for this, meet your new favourite G Royal Paladin! Knight of Power Charge! His 6000 power may put a few people off but you can retire him through an ACT to choose any amount of cards in your hand and put them into the bind zone face down. Retiring him and not being able to easily superior call him is a bit of a bother but if you have ten cards in your hand and you want to activate your Brave skills then he’ll be your best friend.
Rush is a new keyword given to the Nova Grapplers, a clan we haven’t seen for a while. Rush activates once the unit restands due to an effect of a different card. The first card to show off this keyword is the Grade 1, Kumah the Destroyer. When Kumah’s Rush is active he gains +5000 power so he doesn’t have a super-mega-ultra crazy skill but with the other G Novas already giving around 5000 power then he can get extremely strong with standing him up a lot in battle.
To accompany him is the Grade 2, Master Kungfu. Master Kungfu has an on-hit Rush skill which gives you the option to CB1 when his attack hits to stand up another unit and give it +5000 power. You might want to target another Master Kungfu with this to keep an onslaught of attacks coming your opponent’s way or give it to Kumah for a +10000 boost of power.
Pale Moon are getting a new stride by the name of One Who Tells the Demise, Mephisto. If you flip faceup another G unit (Editor’s Note – G-Blast!) then all your units gain +1000 power for each faceup card in your G zone called One Who Tells the Demise, Mephisto. Then for every two faceup cards in your G zone you can call one unit onto a rear-guard circle and give it +5000 power and at the end of the turn it goes back into the soul. Mephisto is an extremely strong finisher with bringing out new units with the potential of having an extra +8000 power as well as Intensely Spicy Clown getting more more power for each unit brought out plus Intensely Sweet Clown who gains another +5000 when brought out from the soul.
Acrobat Bear will help you with getting the cards you need into the soul. With a vaguely Gold Paladin-y skill, this little Grade 1 has you search the top three cards of your deck when placed on the rear-guard circle. The search is to put any one of the three cards into your soul and put the rest to the bottom of your deck. He does need a GB1 so he won’t be used in every deck but he is good at what he does.
Crescent Moon Juggler is a Glimmer Breath clone that allows you to Magia one card and give that unit and Moon Juggler +2000 power until the end of turn. Like all Glimmer Breath clones it costs a CB1 and SB1 with a GB1. Luckily you can use him multiple times if you were to use other cards to Magia him out of the soul.
Lastly for G-BT04 we have the Granblue card Disappear-running Zombie. When he’s placed on a read-guard circle, with a GB1 and if he’s Hollow, then you can search your deck for a card and put it into the drop zone. If he is not Hollow then you just take the top card of your deck and put it in the drop zone. This is such a good ability for Granblue, being able to be so precise with what you are putting into the drop zone.
That isn’t the end of Granblue as a whole for this week though. A couple of trial deck cards appeared, Witch Doctor of the Corrosion Sea, Negrorook and Underling Pirate Skeleton, who are a Grade 2 and 1 with the same ability. These two get +2000 power when there is a GB1 and if they are Hollowed they gain another +5000 power, making them much stronger than the average clan’s version of them.
As an additional note, Daigo will be getting a new set giving more support to the Sanctuary Guard archetype. Sanctuary Guard Dragon and Sanctuary Guard Regalie will be getting reprints as well as Sanctuary Guard Arc finally becoming a card (Previously only shown in the anime). There will also be a new arrival with Sanctuary Guard Imperial who is a new stride for the archetype.
That’s all for this week. Be sure to check in next week for more G-BT05 cards and hopefully some Legend Deck cards!
Cardfight Vanguard singles are available to purchase at Big Orbit Cards: Cardfight Vanguard