G-BT03: Sovereign Star Dragon Review!
This booster pack, which is officially released on 10/07/15, adds new support for the Link Joker, Shadow Paladin, Gold Paladin, Murakumo, Dark Irregulars and Kagero clans, as well as adding two new Cray Elemental cards. This set is really exciting, as it revolutionises the previously under-supported Murakumo clan by giving them ways to generate permanent advantage and giving them devastating combos with their on-stride vanguard and their re-standing G-unit. Shadow Paladins see the theme of forcing the opponent to retire in order to guard return from LD01-The Dark Ren Suzugamori, as well as receiving a G perfect guard and an alternative to Skull Witch, Nemain. Link Joker see Deletors make a comeback with some excellent dedicated support, while Kagero now have the ability to retire Perfect Guards and negate their effects. Gold Paladins’ ability to call from the deck has been extended to the Guardian Circle, and further they receive a powerful late game stride option. Dark Irregulars now have a new legion and an extremely powerful stride with the ability to restrict perfect guards. It seems to be a worthwhile booster if you have any interest in these clans, and one which I am definitely excited for!
Murakumo
Anyone who played Murakumo before the G-era knows that, while the clan has some interesting mechanics and powerful boss monsters, it lacked the power of other clans. It was counterblast heavy and spent huge amounts of resources for little lasting advantage, as the ‘clones’ called by their skills simply returned to the deck. The theme of this booster is to combat this: Stealth Dragon, Rune Star returns to the hand at the end of the turn that another version of himself superior calls him, allowing him to be used for defence; Stealth Fiend, Emissary Crow is an interceptor who can call clones of himself to the guardian circle and return them to the deck afterwards, meaning he is a diminishing 20k shield; a new starter which returns itself to the hand to call a temporary attacker from the top of the deck; and the revival legion, Covert Demonic Dragon, Magatsu Typhoon, breathes life into the old ride chain and gives it some needed consistency. It allows all Magatsu units to boost, and adds copies of itself and its mate to hand, providing a large threat with powerful columns. The addition of a G perfect guard, a limit break enabler and a new interesting stand trigger improve the ‘old-school’ bosses of Fantasy Petal Storm, Shirayuki and Covert Demonic Dragon, Hyakki Vogue ‘Яeverse’. However, what has really excited Murakumo players is the amazing synergy between Fathoming Stealth Rogue, Yasuie; Ambush Demonic Stealth Dragon, Homura Raider and Chain Sickle Stealth Rogue, Onifundou.
Yasuie is the new stride support vanguard, and really helps to develop the theme of the Murakumo ninjas. He has two skills: the first is a generation break 2 skill which, when a unit is returned to the deck by the effect of one of your cards, you can summon one of the same name from the deck; the second is an on-stride ability which lets you choose one of your rear-guards and summon two clones of it, which return to the bottom of the deck at the end of the turn. As the stride can return to the G-zone before you return the cards to the deck, Yasuie can simply bring one of them directly back.
Yasuie was designed to be used to set up Homura Raider. Homura Raider can return three rear-guards of the same name to the deck, lose one drive check, and re-stand itself. As the ability can only be used with two face-up G-units, this is clearly supposed to be your second or third stride, but it’s a very strong one. The cost seems steep, but the idea is to return cloned units which were going to return to the deck anyway; if Yasuie’s effect was used to set it up, then you only strictly lose one card. This card should be run with plenty of critical triggers, to keep severe pressure on your opponent.
Onifundou is the new starter for the deck, and potentially should be run at three copies. At the cost of a soulblast and returning herself to your hand, she can call one card from the top three of your deck. Murakumo, as a whole, have little use for the soul, and Onifundou has no real competitors for the use of this resource. If she is cloned by Yasuie, then the advantage which can be gained is huge. The two cloned Onifundous return to your hand, adding 20k shield; you gain three different rear-guards with which to attack and, at the end of the turn, you can call one of them back with Yasuie’s first skill. Murakumo are now quite the viable deck thanks to the new support, and fans of the old bosses will not be disappointed.
Dark Irregulars
Dark Irregulars see a lot of Amon support in this set, as well as receiving the (now customary) G perfect guard. However, the most interesting cards are their new stride and their new legion. Both of these cards have an effect which activates only at fifteen or more soul, which, considering it requires one third of the deck, should be suitably powerful.
One Who Is Abhorrent, Gilles de Rais does not disappoint. Aside from the usual Dark Irregular power gain effect which activates at ten in soul, at fifteen or more soul he is able to prevent the opponent using perfect guards and also gain one critical. This skill is similar to that of Cosmic Regalia, CEO Yggdrasil, but this is perhaps even more deadly. Without a boost or trigger, Gilles de Rais attacks for 36k, which will necessitate 30k shield to even make it one-to-pass. Of course, he requires a huge amount of set-up, as fifteen cards in the soul is impressive even for Dark Irregulars, but he will win the game when used well. This set gives a lot of help to this card with units like Charharlot Vampir, Squall Maker Vampir, and Storm of Love, Kisskill Lila.
Psychic of Storm, Rigil is the new legion, and he seems to have appropriated the tactics of Kagero. When he attacks a vanguard and has ten or more cards in soul, you can counterblast two to retire two of your opponent’s rear guards; if you have fifteen or more, then you may retire one additional unit. His second effect allows him to soulblast a copy of himself or his mate to soulcharge five cards, which makes it much easier to reach the high levels of soul required. This immense soul charge also powers up Doreen the Thruster, Sweet Predator, and Psychic of Dust, Izaya. It is tempting to run him in conjunction with Gilles de Rais, as they both need the same amount of soul to activate their effects. Rigil can be used to control the game until the conditions have been fulfilled to finish the game with Gilles.
Shadow Paladins
Shadow Paladins have an interesting range of support in this set, including a new version of Skull Witch, Nemain: Smother Knight, Giva. She is a slower version of the classic witch because of her generation break, but has 7k power, meaning she can actually have some offensive presence. Some players might prefer the original as Nemain can be used much earlier in the game, but this adds a good alternative to those who felt her power was too restrictive.
The forerunner for this set is New Sharp Knight, David, who is really useful for the latest Shadow Paladin bosses. When he is retired by the effect of one of your own cards, he counts as two units. Cards such as Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster Diablo benefit greatly from this, as their steep cost can be reduced greatly by the ‘free’ forerunner. Some players might find running more than one of this card useful, as the on-stride ability of Supremacy Dragon, Claret Sword Dragon can superior call him from the deck to help fund the costs of the G-units.
Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Dragon is perfect to use with this Forerunner, as his cost is to retire two rear guards. When he attacks a vanguard, you reveal the top two cards of your deck, add them to your hand, and this unit gains 5k for each grade one or lower unit revealed. This can be a strong power boost in conjunction with the triple drive, but the true power is the hand advantage that can be gained. Again, this would pair well with Claret Sword Dragon, as you can effectively use two counterblast to draw two cards if David is used for the cost. Interestingly, Aurageyser will be receiving a new form in G-BT04, but the effects are as yet unknown.
The alternate version of Phantom Blaster Dragon is a break ride, and would pair well with the Blaster Dark “Diablo” and Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster “Diablo” from the recent Legend Deck. Not only can this card search for a Blaster card when it is placed on the vanguard circle, but it also has a hugely powerful ability: on retiring three rear guards, you draw two cards, unflip three damage and your opponent cannot use grade 1s to guard your vanguard’s attack. If combined with Revenger, Phantom Blaster ‘Abyss’ (which it can search!), then your vanguard can make two attacks with more than 30k power which cannot be nullified. You can also gain Phantom Blaster Overlord’s cross ride power with this card.
Gold Paladins
Gold Paladins receive an interesting, defensive variant of their ability to call units from the top of the deck, as they are now able to call units directly to the guardian circle. The best thing about these superior guards are that they can circumvent restrictions such as the effect of Blue Storm Supreme Dragon, Glory Maelstrom; you might not be able to call grade 1 or greater units to the guardian circle from your hand, but this comes from the top of the deck. With good luck, it is possible to guard against those attacks with perfect guards.
Perhaps the best example of this new mechanic is Sunrise Ray Knight, Gurguit, who serves as the new on-stride vanguard for the deck. He boasts a good mix of utility and defence, but it is his generation break ability which is perhaps the most interesting. He is able to search the top few cards of his deck and call a card to put into the guardian circle; obviously, the ideal would be to add a perfect guard (which needs to be of the old variety, as G perfect guards can only use their effect when called from hand). More often than not, this skill will be used to call a 10k shield, which makes it less cost efficient, but not overpriced. The grade 1 Slaymy and grade 2 Braygal share similar effects, though players may feel that they make the deck overly defensive.
Link Joker
Link Joker receive a few new aces in the forms of their stride units, one of which (Nebula Dragon, Big Crunch Dragon) benefits Omega Glendios most, as it provides a cheaper way of starting to ‘Omega lock’ the enemy’s field. The addition of Drawing Blade Star-Vader, Bohrium, which searches for cards with ‘Я’ in their name, further increases the viability of Glendios. The new support for Deletors gives them a fast and reliable form of deleting in Mixed Deletor, Chaos and rear-guards with draw effects to help offset his cost of discarding two cards. Chaos’ ability to lock two enemy rear-guards in addition to deleting the vanguard makes the opponent’s next turn almost meaningless, and he will certainly be welcomed by Deletor players. 
Genesis Dragon, Amnesty Messiah will be a hugely sought-after card: when it attacks a vanguard, you can choose any number of rear-guards and unlock them, then it gains power and a critical, dependent on how many were unlocked. The cheap cost of one counterblast, coupled with the ability to unlock potentially your whole field, means that this is a solid and dependable unit for Messiahs. Old Link Joker will see this as counter-intuitive, as they do not lock their own units to pay costs. It might see some niche use as a finisher, or as tech for a mirror match, but this should not see much use outside of G-era ‘Messiah’ Link Joker.
Kagero
Heroic Saga Dragon forces the opponent to retire a unit, else it gains one critical and the ability to retire a guardian from the guardian circle if the number of guardians is one. This also nullifies the effect of Perfect Guards, and thus makes the opponent essentially need to discard two cards to use them. This ability is shared with the grade 2 Dragon Knight, Emad, who serves as a nice alternative. Emad benefits from not having to be the vanguard, but is less likely to be guarded with a perfect guard. His strength comes from being able to reach 11k on his own, which threatens most vanguards, and to force two guardians even when unboosted. Kagero therefore gain even more offensive pressure, and diminish the opponent’s resources even more.
Cray Elemental
Earth Elemental, Pokkle is a really interesting unit, being able to unlock one of your own cards for the cost of one soul blast. This is somewhat restricted by the requirement of having a face up Cray Elemental on the G Zone, but this is not an overly difficult requirement. Unless your meta is dominated by Link Joker, the strength of this card is when it is used in ‘Яeverse’ decks, to help offset the cost of locking one of your own units. The utility of this has already been seen in combinations such as Stealth Beast, Metamorfox and Covert Demonic Dragon, Hyakki Vogue ‘Яeverse’; making this available to all clans will surely make ‘Яeverse’ units more viable. Air Elemental, Fuwaloon gets +1000 power for every face-up Cray Elemental in the G-Zone. If you are using clans that suffer from not having many of their own G-units then this card will be great and is possible to get up to 15k.
To conclude, this is a really interesting set for many clans. It adds new abilities and tactics and aids strategic diversity. The set seems to be well worth getting, especially for fans of Murakumo, but is more than worth it for all the clans. I’m personally very excited for the Sneak Peek coming up this weekend!
Cardfight Vanguard singles are available to purchase at Big Orbit Cards: Cardfight Vanguard, and Big Orbit Games is running a Sneak Peek tournament at 13:00 on 04/07/15.