Cardfight!! Vanguard Weekly Card Update #43

May 11, 2016Cardfight!! Vanguard, ReviewsAngel Feather, Bermuda Triangle, Cardfight!! Vanguard, cfv, Dark Irregulars, Dimension Police, Gear Chronicle, Gold Paladin, KageroJames

Welcome back to another weekly update of the new cards for Cardfight!! Vanguard. Monthly Bushiroad gave us a huge amount of cards to look forward to for G-BT07 so I will try to get through every one of these as well as the cards of the week which all give us a nice idea of what to expect from the next set.

One that I know a lot of people have been looking forward too because it will create a new build for Gear Chronicle is Chronofang Tiger. Chronofang isn’t a strider as some people would have assumed, though he does have a GB2 skill that gives any card in your hand Grade +3 when you are using them as stride fuel, then the cards you used to stride with are sent to your bind zone instead of the drop zone. As well as this, he also has an on-ride skill where you put one card from your hand into the bind zone, then you choose one of your opponent’s rear-guards, they put it into their deck and search for up to one card with 2 less Grades than the unit put into the deck. Seeing as there is a lot of permanent binding of your cards, and although we do get some cards that can work from the bind zone, I would recommend using draw triggers in a Chronofang deck to counter the loss of cards.

Bind Time‘s skill has been officially revealed. He gets the extra 10k and a crit when attacking if you bind one of your units, and your opponent puts one of their units on the bottom of their deck for each card in your bind zone. Though the full skill does require a Counter Blast 2, Soul Blast 1, and a G Persona Blast but if you have a Gear Beast (race) heart then you also Counter Charge 2 and Soul Charge 2. The extra Soul Charge can help you out with rear-guard skills for units such as Steam Fighter, Mesh-he; Steam Scara, Gigi; and Steam Knight, Mudal.

Parallel Barrel Dragon is a Grade 1 Gear Chronicle who’s skill works from the bind zone. You can choose one of your rear-guards to rest and if you do you can call this unit to open rear-guard circle. Your target for the rest could be something you know you will be Time Leaping later that turn making it less of a burden on your part. This card and Mudal make Chronofang’s and Bind Time’s costs less of a disadvantage.

A fairly decent early game Grade 2 is Safety Observing Gear Diver. Though he only has 8000 power, he has a skill with the cost of resting himself and binding a card from your drop zone you can put one of your opponent’s rest rear-guards at the bottom of their deck and Gear Diver cannot stand during its next stand phase. Even with its low power and with it paralysing iteself, getting rid of one of your opponent’s attackers and binding one of your drop zone units is a pretty big buff, especially with Mudal and Parallel Barrel who can come back, and Bind Time who can use your bind zone against your opponent.

Lastly for Gear Chronicle we have Tooth Edge Dracokid, a new forerunner without Generation Break. As an ACT you can put him into the soul and discard a normal unit from your hand, if you do you can look at the top card of the deck, decide to put it on the top or the bottom of your deck, and then draw a card, and give one of your units +5000 power. He could be useful if you are lacking a grade in your hand to help you ride all the way to Grade 3 but people may not use him for the fact that he only has 4000 power, though you probably won’t be using him to boost for long in a match.

Next up is a clan we haven’t seen for a while, Dimension Police. First it would be best to go over this clan’s exclusive keyword which is called “Burst”. Burst activates when your Vanguard has reached a certain amount of power, allowing you to unlock even more potential. Rear-guards can also have Burst, which allows them to bounce off your Vanguard’s power. To start off big I’ll go over their RRR stride, Super Cosmic Hero, X-gallop. When X-gallop attacks, if he has 35000 or more power, his Burst effect activates which allows you to Counter Blast 1 and G blast at Generation Break 2 to gain +1 drive check making him a quadruple drive. Then, if his power is 40000 or greater, all your rear-guards in the front row gain +4000 power for each face-up Super Cosmic Hero, X-gallop in your G zone. Getting him to 35000 power is very easy to achieve if you have a simple 5000 power or greater unit boosting him and giving a +4000 power boost from an effect of one of your units. Getting him to the 40000 will be a little trickier if you are using your forerunner to boost him, however if you were to put a 6000 power or higher booster behind him you would only need to use two power giving skill on him. For just a CB1 and G blast this card is crazy, especially considering you can use him four times. He is not Gallop restricted so I would highly recommend putting him in any power-giving deck (Aka anything that isn’t Zeal).

As for forerunners, you shouldn’t have any trouble replacing this new one for a Grade 1 later in the game as he does go into the soul. Cosmic Hero, Grandhop has a GB1 Burst skill where you can rest him to give your Vanguard +4000 power if your Vanguard has 25000 or more power. If your Vanguard’s power is then 30000 or more, you can put Grandhop into the soul, draw a card, and Counter Charge 1. This is a fairly useful skill as Dimension Police in general don’t have very many Counter Chargers and there are a few cards that only get their skills on-call so the draw will help there too. It could be wise to not put this unit behind your Vanguard and instead put him below a high-powered rear-guard and rest him every turn.

A very useful Grade 2 that Dimension Police are getting in this set is Cosmic Hero, Grandrevolver. He has a once per turn Burst ACT where you may Counter Blast 1 if your Vanguard has 15000 or more power to give one of your rear-guards +4000 power. Then, if your Vanguard has 30000 or more power Grandrevolver will Counter Charge 2 if his attack hits. He really only Counter Charges 1 as the skill itself Counter Blasts 1 but you can choose the unit behind this one to gain the extra power so this unit has a better chance of hitting, or if you had two of this card on the field you could have them give each other power so they both have a better chance of Counter Charging, and if only one hits then at least you didn’t really have to spend any Counter Blasts on the two skill. On top of all of this he has Resist which will prevent him from being targeted by retires and locks.

Great Cosmic Hero, Grandmantle is a very useful backup Grade 3 for Gallop. When he is placed on the Vanguard circle you may Counter Blast 1 and Soul Blast 1 to search the top five cards of your deck for a unit with the Burst ability and add it to your hand. What really makes him good though is his second skill: As a Burst ACT you may Counter Blast 1 and if your Vanguard have 15000 power or greater then this unit gains +4000 power and if your Vanguard has 35000 power or greater, this unit then gives your Vanguard an additional 4000 power. You can only use the second skill once per turn but it does help you reach that glorious 40000 power for X-gallop and let’s not forget the 45000 power needed for X-tiger.

Our inevitable Burst perfect guard is Cosmic Hero, Grandreef. His non-nullifying skill is a once per turn Soul Blast that you can use if your Vanguard is at 30000 or more power and if you do, you can return Grandreef back to your hand at the end of the turn. Then if your Vanguard has 35000 or more power, Grandreef gains +4000 power. I think this is definitely one of the best of the keyword perfect guards as soul isn’t used overly much in Dimension Police and becoming a 10k booster/attack is always nice.

Lastly for Dimension Police we have poor ol’ Enigmans struggling along. This one is a stride, and like the G Guardian, it doesn’t really help Enigmans. Superlight Giant, Enigman Cross Ray has a fairly simple skill, at the beginning of your attack step (so before boosting) if this unit has 30000 or more power you may rest one of your rear-guards and he gains +10000 power. I guess this is used to help with Burst effects but as the Burst skills of rear-guards so far have happened in the main phase, I don’t see how this unit helps much. I guess if your opponent doesn’t have any perfect guards they are going to struggle against this card though.

Kagero get an almost Steam Fighter, Balih clone for Overlords. When this Spherical Lord Dragon is placed on the Vanguard circle you can Counter Blast 2 to search your deck for an Overlord and ride it as stand. Then you can choose this card from the soul and bring it out to a rear-guard circle. His other skill works on the rear-guard circle and when your Grade 4 with Overlord in its name attacks, this unit gains +5000 power. So he becomes a nice little 16k attacker but the Counter Blast 2 for his ride skill may seem a bit costly for Kagero and you’re probably better off just running more Overlords, though he does make for a nice budget option.

Another Kagero Grade 3 is Wyvern Strike, Garugy. He has the Blaze keyword and if he on the Vanguard circle while Blazing then he gains +3000 power until the end of turn, and when he is placed on the Vanguard circle you can CB1 and SB1 to search the top five cards for a unit with Blaze and put it into your hand. He’s not very strong and I feel that Heroic Saga Dragon fills the back-up Grade 3 slot better as I feel they are both there to be the backup of Dragonic Blademaster but I would definitely go with Heroic Saga instead.

A good little trigger that Kagero got is that Stand trigger, Inspire Yell Dragon. As well as having the Blaze keyword he also has a Generation Break skill. With the cost of putting him on the bottom of the deck if your Vanguard is Blazing, you draw a card and give one of your units +5000 power, then shuffle your deck. He seems to work the best in a Dragonic Blademaster deck but as he is a nice little power up as well as a draw and stand in one then he could be fit into a few other decks.

Dragon Knight, Roya is a defensive Grade 1 unit much like Balloon Raccoon. With the Blaze keyword he is also given two skills, one of which allows you to put him in the bind zone after he attacks or boosts. Then with a GB1 skill when he’s in the bind zone, you can put him into the Guardian circle at the beginning of a guard phase and he gains +5000 shield. His power is only 6000 but seeing as he’s more of a defensive unit I’m sure he will still be used in a few decks. Also if you are up against Narukami you can use their binds to your advantage.

Then Dragon Knight, Nadim is our last Kagero unit this week who yet again has Blaze. When this Grade 2 attacks a Vanguard, and if your Vanguard is Blazing, he gains +2000 power, then if you are on GB1 and his attack hits you can Counter Charge 1. He’s a pretty nice card for a clan that uses a lot of Counter Blasts and I can see him being used in many Kagero decks.

Dark Irregulars get some pretty strong cards, the first one being a Grade 2 called Doppel Vampir. At Generation Break 1 and if Doppel is in Darkness (Darkness is the new keyword for Dark Irregulars. It takes effect when a card has been put into the soul during that turn) this unit will gain 5000 power when attacking if you have six or more cards in the soul. Then, if you have fifteen or more cards in the soul, your opponent won’t be able to guard with Grade 0s, making him a very strong Silent Tom. These are pretty easy to achieve, especially with Blade Wing Tibold who can Soul Charge 5 on your first stride and prevent you from decking out.

Enigmatic Assassin is a new Grade 0 with 5000 power but lacks the Forerunner keyword. She has a Darkness skill that works from the soul which you can activate at the beginning of your attack step. This skill allows you to bring her out onto the field from the soul if you have ten or more cards in the soul and she then gains +5000 power. Then if you have fifteen cards in your soul she gains an additional +10000 power, making her a 20000 attacker or booster. She is a very strong unit, however her power up only lasts until the end of the turn, though luckily you can use her with the original Amon to put her back into the soul and then bring her right back out again.

A very useful stride that Dark Irregulars are getting is Mask of Demonic Insanity, Elikries. When he’s in Darkness and he attacks, you Soul Charge 2. Then, if you have six or more cards in your soul when his attack hits, your opponent much choose one of their rear-guards and retire it, and if you have fifteen or more cards in your soul, he gains +1000 power for every card in his soul until the end of that battle. Being able to Soul Charge on-attack is very useful. The main problem with Kisskill was that she would only Soul Charge when the attack hit, and although the draw was nice, Elikries helps a lot more with the set up.

Frosty Steeple is a good back-up Grade 3 for Scharhrot Vampir. He has the fairly common effect of Soul Blasting and Counter Blasting 1 when you ride him to look at the top five cards of the deck in search of one card with the clan’s unique keyword, this one looking for one with Darkness. His other skill is a lot more useful though. When he’s on the Vanguard circle and if he is in Darkness and you are at Generation Break 1, he gains +10000 power when he attacks if you have ten or more cards in your soul, and if you have fifteen or more cards in the soul he prevents your opponent from guarding with Grade 1 or higher units from their hand, making him similar to a Grade 3 version of Gilles de Rais. I would definitely use this guy as a back-up for Scharhrot as they can work together pretty well if you set up with Scharhrot first and then use this guy in the late game.

Nine Break Hustler is the last of the Dark Irregulars with her being another Grade 3 but this time only having 10000 power, yet has a useful skill, similar to the Blade Wing Grade 3s. If you call her to a rear-guard circle at Generation Break 1 you can choose up to two of your units and search for up to three copies of each of them and put those copies into your soul, then she gains +1000 power for each card put into the soul this way until the end of the turn. This is a fairly useful card and can put Dimension Creepers into your soul easily, as well as cards from the Witching Hour series. I’m not sure if she is going to be able to find a place in many Dark Irregular decks but you may choose her as your back-up Grade 3 for Scharhrot if Frosty Steeple isn’t your thing. She could also work in Amon though the Grade 3 spaces are usually taken up by both of the Amons and Astaroth.

Knight of Blooming Sun, Jeffry is a fairly simple but very useful card for Gurguit decks. He’s not Gurguit restricted but he has Unite and Generation Break 1 which gives him the ability to go into the soul at the end of the battle that he boosted to draw a card. Jeffry and Marcia give so much fuel for Gurguit to work with and Jeffry just adds to the defence.

Another Unite unit comes in the form of the Grade 3, Knight of Merciful Light, Bradott. As a once per turn Unite ACT you can Soul Blast 1 to reveal the top card of your deck, then Bradott gains power equal to the power of the revealed card. If the revealed card then has Unite you can call it to an open rear-guard circle. If you go first in the match, this will help you during your first ride as he isn’t slowed down by a Generation Break but he isn’t extremely useful. At least if you superior call Jeffry with his skill it kind of turns into a free draw.

Bururugal is a little Grade 2 powerhouse for Golds. When Bururugal attacks a Vanguard, if he is United then he gains +5000 power until the end of the battle. He’s a nice attacker and I’d recommend running a couple at least as you can get to some pretty high numbers with this card.

One card I’m very interested in is a Grade 2 from Angel Feather, Drive Celestial, Armaiti. He’s normally only at 8000 power but if you have a card in your damage zone with the same name as a card on your Vanguard circle AND you have no rear-guards in your front row, he gains +8000 power and can attack on the back row. As long as you don’t mind not boosting your Vanguard then this card will allow you to attack four times without any abilities standing your rear-guards. You could use him with Ramiel “Reverse “ because if you lock the front row rear-guards then they technically aren’t there and Armaiti still gets his buff.

Angel Feather also get a new keyword named “Rescue”. Rescue used when a skill involves healing one of the cards from your damage zone and taking the top card of your deck and putting it into the damage zone. What makes Rescue useful is triggers are active during this damage so you can still get extra benefits by getting Criticals, Heals, Draws, and Stands during Rescue. To give you an idea of how this works in a skill we have Treatment Nurse. Her skill is shown with a “Rescue-1” at the beginning of it, indicating that one day we will get cards that can rescue more than one, and if Treatment Nurse’s attack hits at a Generation Break 1 you can heal a card and damage yourself. You’d mainly want to damage yourself during the main phase as that’s when you will be able to give the power ups from the Rescuing but at least if you get a Stand trigger you can stand her right back up again. Requiem Pegasus is a Grade 3 who has the same effect but also gives another units +2000. Healing Palace is probably a better Grade 3 back-up but if you’re going for a heavily Rescue deck then Requiem Pegasus is the way forward.

Doctoroid Remunon is a new Perfect Guard that activates its second skill if you have another copy of her face up in the damage zone, and if you do you can Rescue one card. It would be pretty good to put this in a Nociel deck and you can often switch cards from your hand with cards in your damage zone, making it so you can prepare for this card’s effect and then get it back into your hand when you’re in a pinch.

Angel Feather also get a new Forerunner. Black Report, Ridwan has a Generation Break skill that you can activate when a card is put from your damage zone into the drop zone. If this does happen then you can put Ridwan into the soul and choose one of your rear-guards and give it +4000 power. Then if that card was put into the drop zone by a Rescue ability, you may call that Rescued unit to a rear-guard circle. This a pretty nice superior caller and is a good way to promote the new keyword. Black Candle, Azrail may still seem like a good choice for some decks but Ridwan does not require a Counter Blast.

As well as all of this, Bushi also revealed all the box topper promos that we are getting in G-BT07. There are a few reprints such as Coolgal; Medical Bomber Nurse; Dragonic Burnout; and Thunderbolt Shockwave Colossus. However, there are also two new cards! The first one is for Dimension Police, Cosmic Hero, Grandlady. She is a 7000 power Grade 1 and when she is on a rear-guard circle you can rest her as an ACT to give your Vanguard +4000 power. Then if your Vanguard has the Burst keyword you can choose one of your rear-guards and give that +4000 power too. She’s very nice if you want to save on Counter Blasts and you are not losing too much power if you have strode X-Gallop as you will still be able to give power to a rear-guard she may be behind.

Dark Irregulars’s box topper is Eccentric Dissector. He is an extremely useful card, especially for the new Darkness keyword. At the beginning of your main phase he allows you to Soul Charge 1. You don’t have to if you don’t need it which helps you a little with decking out purposes but if you had more than one of the rear-guard circle it would definitely help you reach your soul goal.

And last but not least we have one card from the next Bermuda Triangle clan booster, Garland Blossom, Ayna. She has Harmony and a Generation Break 1 skill that gives all units in the same row as her Harmony if she is in Harmony. Then, as a non-Generation Break ACT you may Counter Blast 1 and rest her to give all units in the same column as her +5000 power. This does mean that she will also get the +5000 power but until we see the rest of the cards in the set it will be hard to say whether it will be easy to stand her back up or not.

Join me again for next week for more spoilers on the latest sets, decks, and promos.

Cardfight Vanguard singles are available to purchase at Big Orbit Cards: Cardfight Vangua r d

Cardfight!! Vanguard Weekly Card Update #41

April 25, 2016Cardfight!! Vanguard, ReviewsBermuda Triangle, Cardfight!! Vanguard, cfv, Genesis, Gold Paladin, Kagero, Murakumo, Nova Grappler, NubatamaJames

Welcome back to another weekly update of the new cards for Cardfight!! Vanguard. The Fighter’s Collection 2016 cards are almost at an end and we only have five G Guardians to have revealed to us after today. We have also had a trickle of G-BT07 Gold Paladin units units spoiled this week.

Before I go into the G-BT07 Gold Paladins, there is one promo Gold Paladin to show. Knight of Morning Day, Edadus is a Grade 1 who gains +2000 power when he is United. He is actually surprisingly useful as he doesn’t need to attack for the +2000, so he is a possible 9k booster. Along with Knight of New Sun, Catillus you can make a 21k column. Not only that, but unlike Catillus, Edadus does not have GB1 so you could rush your opponent early game and get in some extra damage.

One of the new G-BT07 Gold Paladins is Dawngal, a pretty interesting Grade 3. He only has 10000 power but when he’s placed on rear-guard circle he gains the ability to boost until the end of that turn. This would work well for cards like Wolf Fang Liberator, Garmore who has the potential to call five units from the top of your deck. I’ve seen this version Garmore used a few times and the person using him usually calls more Grade 2s and Grade 3s than necessary who would usually not be able to boost, but at least you could throw Dawngal behind one of the Grade 2s now, and if you have an 11k Grade 3 or 2 in from of him then your opponent will need to start using 15k shields to block that column. Dawngal also has a GB1 Unite skill where he gains +5000 shield and intercept. Using him up like this is a good way to keep a rear-guard space free for other units and free from lock, and when against heavy retiring clans like Kagero this at least lets you retire him for a purpose that helps you.

Holy Mage, Connor is another units with good defensive capabilities. He’s a Grade 1 with 6000 power and when he is placed on the guardian circle you can Soul Blast 1 to give him +5000 shield, or when he’s placed on the rear-guard circle you can pay the same cost to give him +5000 power until the end of the turn. The blocking skill helps when using Gurguit‘s GB2 skill but the Soul Blast becomes a bit costly with Gurguit’s SB1 and CB1. So long as Golds get a lot of Soul Charging in the next set this card will be fine, but for now it can seem costly in the long run.

The only other Gold Paladin so far shown for G-BT07 is Scarface Lion, a Critical trigger. This unit has the usual effect of working with the G boss of the clan. When your unit with Gurguit in its name attacks, Scarface goes into the soul and you give Gurguit +5000 power and draw a card.

Onto the Fighter’s Collection cards we have Murakumo’s Ambush Demon Stealth Fiend, Hogen Wing. When he is placed on the guardian circle you can choose one of your Grade 1 or greater rear-guards and find another copy of it from your deck and place it on the guardian circle. Then at the end of the battle phase when the cloned card would be put into the drop zone, you put it on the bottom of your deck instead. You can use the standard perfect guards with this skill, though to do so you would need to already have a perfect guard in the rear-guard which isn’t usually advisable. Even if you did put a perfect guard on the rear-guard circle, you could always get it back into your deck by cloning it with Yasuie‘s skill and then using Homura Raider to put all three copies into the deck. This could be foretelling the future of Murakumo’s defensive skills as we may get more units like Emissary Crow that have cloning abilities that activate on the guardian circle.

Carrying on with the Japanese-theme, Jinx Stealth Hermit, Abudataishi is the G Guardian for Nubatama. If your opponent has six or less cards in their hand then Abudataishi gains +5000 shield. This kind of condition is not hard to achieve with Nubatama if using cards like Shiranui, Dreadmaster, and Gedatsurakan. Brave decks will suffer a lot against this unit unless they get a lot of end-of-turn drawing in the future.

Goddess of Seven Colors, Iris is the G Guardian who’s skill will be a huge help to any Genesis deck. When she is placed on the GC you can choose three cards from your drop zone and put them into your soul, if you do, she gains +5000 shield. With this in a Regalia deck you can recycle Mirror Regalia, Achlis and Regalia of Fate, Norn into the soul to continue to give your opponent extra power on Soul Blast. With Witches you can guard with Witch of White Rabbits, Cardamon and Witch of Quill Pens, Oneon and still have a way to get them onto the field.

Nova Grappler’s Righteous Superhuman, Blue Prison gets +5000 shield when you have more or equal damage to your opponent. It doesn’t seem very Nova Grappler-ish and I’m sure if you told someone about this ability they would think it was just some Cray Elemental, but with the new Rush keyword they definitely focus more on offence than defence. This will probably seem like an “okay” card to use in any of the older Nova Grappler decks but it’s generally an easy condition to meet so it shouldn’t cause too much of a problem.

Another G Guardian that is easy to beef up to 20k is Selene Medley, Nadja, a Bermuda Triangle unit. When she hits the GC you can reveal a card from your hand and if you have a unit on your field with the same grade as the revealed card then she gets +5000 shield. Duos help a lot with this skill, especially with cards like Duo Gorgeous Lady, Kazuha, Duo Lovely Devil, Vepar, and Duo Mini Heart, Rhone who have the potential to search your deck for cards and put them into your hand.

Kagero get Flame Emperor Dragon King, Asile Orb Dragon who gets his +5000 shield when your opponent has four or less rear-guards. This works great against Shadow Paladin, Tachikaze, Murakumo, Nubatama, Magia, Hollow, and many other decks, though doesn’t do so well against Kagero’s natural enemy, Royal Paladin.

Lastly we have a promo for Bermuda Triangle, Wonder Frill, Nanoka. Nanoka is a Grade 2 with 9000 power and Harmony and if her attack hits and she is in Harmony then you can Counter Charge 1, and if you do you may bounce her into your hand. This unit would make a nice rear-guard for a Riviere deck or a Lauris deck as both Riviere and Lauris can give +10000 power to a column, giving this unit a better chance at hitting, and as Riviere has a high Counter Blast, the Counter Charge this card gives will prove especially useful.

Join me again for next week for more spoilers on the latest sets, decks, and promos.

Cardfight Vanguard singles are available to purchase at Big Orbit Cards: Cardfight Vangua r d

Cardfight!! Vanguard Weekly Card Update #38

April 1, 2016Cardfight!! Vanguard, ReviewsAqua Force, Bermuda Triangle, Cray Elemental, Gear Chronicle, Royal Paladin, Shadow PaladinJames

Welcome back to another weekly update of the new cards for Cardfight!! Vanguard. Yet again there aren’t many cards to talk about this week but the ones we do get are very good. There are the last of the GRs and RRRs from Fighter’s Collection 2016, a new stride for the Daigo set, and info about the next clan booster.

Interdimensional Dragon, Warp Drive Dragon is the GR stride for Gear Chronicle in the Fighter’s Collection and boy does he make a good early game and late game stride. It has an ACT cost of CB1 and SB1 and the option to flip another card G unit face-up. If you did the Counter Blast and Soul Blast then you can Time Leap as many of your rear-guards equal to the amount of face-up Warp Drive Dragons you have in the G zone, then choose one of your opponent’s rear-guards with a Grade equal to or less than the amount of cards you Time Leapt with this effect, then put that card to the bottom of their deck. There are some great cards you can select to Time Leap for early game like Steam Worker, Etana to get in some extra damage; Steam Maiden, Lasina-bel to mess with your opponent’s set-up; and having Tickaway Dragon during all of this will stop you from decking out and will ensure that you have the right cards to Time Leap to.

For Aqua Force’s RRR they have Marine General of Heavenly Silk, Khristos who fixes up any weaker columns. When he attacks you may Counter Blast 1 to give your front row rear-guards +2000 power and they gain the abilities to draw a card if their attacks hit on either the third or fourth battle of the turn. This will work well with Magnum Assault and Battle Siren, Adelaide to keep your units stood, ready for the third and fourth battles, though it would have been nicer if the skill was wave fourth and fifth. Still, this will put pressure on your opponent and may force them to use 10k shields on fairly weak rear-guards.

Shadow Paladin’s stride is Dark Dragon, Distress Dragon and he does what you would expect him to do, mass retirement. As an ACT you can CB3, SB3, and G blast 1, then you can choose any number of your rear-guards to retire and your opponent retires the same amount. Then if the amount of units retired in total was six or more you draw two cards, Counter Charge 1, Soul Charge 1, and your Vanguard gets +20k power. Retiring Promising Knight, David; Pitch Black Sage, Charon; or Mage of the Rogue Eye, Arsur can really hurt your opponent as they would have to retire two cards for you only retiring one.

Having trouble with Grade 2 stallers? Wish you could get a stride without your opponent being at Grade 3? Well from the creators of Air Elemental, Twitterun, I have for you Air Elemental, Sebreeze! If there are no face-up cards in your G zone and you are at Grade 3 while your opponent is at Grade 2 and they didn’t ride on their previous turn, then you may stride this card. Having your opponent try to guard as a Grade 2 against this card and your GB1 rear-guards is going to prove extremely difficult for them, though I’m sure a lot of people won’t be using this just because they want their G zone to only have their clan in this, so you stall decks will still be safe against a few decks, though in competitive play it would always be good to have one of these in your G zone. I guess there’s only one thing for it… Grade 1 stall decks!

For the Daigo set Holy Dragon, Sanctuary Guard Imperial was recently revealed. You may CB1 for it’s ACT ability to give one of your Grade 1 or less rear-guards +3000 power for each of your Grade 1 or less units, including itself. Then if that unit hits a Vanguard, your Vanguard gains +10000 power and +1 crit. Though Regalie may be a better option most of the time, Imperial does work well if your opponent doesn’t have many cards in their hand so you can get in as much damage as you can in one turn.

Lastly there’s some exciting news for Bermuda Triangle players with the new G Clan Booster 3: Blessing of Divas.
From the looks of it Lauris is our GR of this set. There also seems to be Raindear and Coral in the picture as well as the three on the end being a new PRISM trio. Not only that but we have confirmation of a new rarity for this set! If you remember the SPs from the last Bermuda set then you’ll know they had alternate art with a summer theme. Well in this one we still have the SPs but also WSPs. It’s expected that the SPs will just be the same art like most SPs but with the text border gone, though the “W” in WSP stands for “Wedding”, meaning you’ll get to see your favourite Bermuda girls in a wedding dress. Cardfight!! Vanguard has turned into a dating sim for your Bermuda waifu, I’m sure many will be pleased.

That’s everything for this week. Join me again for next week for more spoilers on the latest sets, decks, and promos.

Cardfight Vanguard singles are available to purchase at Big Orbit Cards: Cardfight Vangua r d

Cardfight!! Vanguard Weekly Card Update #37

March 24, 2016Cardfight!! Vanguard, ReviewsBermuda Triangle, Dark Irregulars, Kagero, Link Joker, Royal Paladin, Shadow PaladinJames

Welcome back to another weekly update of the new cards for Cardfight!! Vanguard. This week’s update is coming a little sooner than usual due to the Easter holidays but there are still some awesome cards to go through this week with some new Fighter’s Collection cards and all-new promos.

This first one up today is the new Royal Paladin GR stride for Fighter’s Collection, Divine Knight of Rainbow Brocade, Clotenus. As an ACT you can CB1, SB1, and G blast to superior call Grade 2s from the deck up to the same amount of face-up Divine Knight of Rainbow Brocade, Clotenus in the G zone. Then, if you also have five rear-guards and are at GB3, Clotenus himself gains +10000 power and an extra crit. Luckily with this skill happening before attacking you can very easily be on Brave and you can prepare for Clotenus but using Transcending the Heavens, Altmile to flip Clotenus face-up so you can superior call more Grade 2s and have a better chance of getting the power boost. The same thing can be applied to Climax Jewel Knight Lord, Evangeline if you plan on using this guy in a Jewel Knight deck.

Dark Irregulars get a pretty nice RRR stride with Rebellious Retainer of Fresh Blood, Frederick. With the ACT cost of putting a card from your hand into your soul to gain +1000 power for each card in the soul. You can use this multiple times in one turn but if his power gain goes to 10k or higher then you can’t do it anymore that turn but your rear-guards in the front row get +5000 power. I like how you choose from the hand because this gives you a better idea with what’s going to happen with Dimension Creeper and Hades Carriage of the Witching Hour who usually rely completely on luck whether they get into the soul or not.

Lastly for this week’s Fighter’s Collection cards we have the Link Joker GR stride, Genesis Dragon, Trancels Messiah. When Trancels Messiah is placed on the Vanguard circle, you may CB1 and G Persona Blast to lock all rear-guards of both players and unlock any units that were already locked before this effect, though this skill can only be used if you have a Messiah heart. While doing this, if you activate Alter Ego Messia h‘s on-stride ability before Trancels then you can lock one of your own units and unlock it again straight after. Using Alter Ego’s skill on Blast Monk of the Thunder Foot can be a big advantage to you to then have him unlock Dark Metal Chameleon when he attacks for him to gain +4000 power and Dark Metal’s skill of Counter Charging 1 when he is unlocked to make the whole cost of it CB1 instead of CB2. At the end of your turn Alter Ego’s other ability can then kick into play to Soul Blast 1, when one of your units is unlocked, to draw a card. If you have a big soul then it’s possible to be able to draw five cards at the end of your turn with this effect, making nine new cards in your hand for the whole turn if you count the starting draw and triple drive.

Seeing as a lot of G units are characters from the future it’s only fitting that we would eventually see them as normal units and it seems they wanted to start this trend off with Bermuda Triangle’s Olyvia. The new Cheer Free Etoile, Olyvia has a CONT ability that gives her +5000 power for each face-up School Etoile, Olyvia in the G zone. When School Etoile, Olyvia strides over her then you must reveal the top seven cards of your deck and if they all have different names then call two of them to RC and choose a card from your hand and put it into your soul. People have been saying that to make this card consistent you must make your deck inconsistent and they are correct. You’ll have to be running a lot of 1s and 2s of card to pull this card off but at least that way it’s still more consistent than Mystery Flare Dragon.

Dreaming Step, Shizuku is a very odd card to have in the G series. Her ability is to drop a Grade 3 from hand so she can gain +5000 power, then if she is in harmony you look at the top five cards of your deck for a Grade 3 and put it into your hand. Back before the G series, this would have been pretty good with your Grade 3s still giving you some benefit after riding, but now that Grade 3s are valuable to use for striding it sorta kills Shizuku a little bit. The main benefit to this is you can use it before GB but I’m not sure if it’s really worth it… unless… Bermuda stall deck!

Meer gets a new stride form with Duo Absolute Sister, Meer. If you have a heart with Meer in the name and you SB1 you can bounce one Duo into your hand and search your deck for a Meer card to put into your hand. Then if you reveal three cards in your hand with the same name you can search your deck for another Meer. This helps greatly by giving you the resources you need to stride the two turns after this stride.

Enough with the Bermuda love for now, other clans got promos too, including a Dark Irregulars promo, Eccentric Dissector. At the beginning of your main phase, this little Grade 1 with give you the option to Soul Charge 1. This has replaced the need for Yellow Bolt after all these years, and I’m glad it gives you the option to Soul Charge or not because it would have been a little embarrassing decking out because of this guy.

Hidden Edge Crow is a new Shadow Paladin promo who is a 6k Grade 1 but because 10k as long as you have less rear-guards than your opponent. I think this card would have been fine without the GB1 but alas, it has it, though having less rear-guards than your opponent isn’t hard for Shadow Paladins.

Kagero get two promos. The first one being Endless Flare Dragon who is a 9k Grade 2 who gains +3000 if you reveal a Grade 3 as he attacks. This is easy in the Dragonic Overlord decks with their need for lots of Dragonic Overlord Grade 3s to activate abilities. The second promo is Dragon Knight, Ruhlen who is also a 9k Grade 2 and when he intercepts you can give your Vanguard the ability to retire one of your opponent’s rested units if the attack on your Vanguard didn’t hit.

That’s everything for this week. Join me again for next week for more spoilers on the latest sets, decks, and promos.

Cardfight Vanguard singles are available to purchase at Big Orbit Cards: Cardfight Vangua r d

Cardfight!! Vanguard Weekly Card Update #34

March 4, 2016Cardfight!! Vanguard, ReviewsBermuda Triangle, Entrager, Gear Chronicle, Genesis, Neo Nectar, Nova Grappler, Nubatama, Royal Paladin, Shadow Paladin, TachikazeJames

Welcome back to another weekly update of the new cards for Cardfight!! Vanguard. This week we get a better look at what the new Fighter’s Collection has to offer so let’s dive right in a see if there are any cards that can help your clan.

First off is Tachikaze with their new stride, Destruction Tyrant, Grado Gigant. When this unit attacks you can activate its Engorge ability which will give it +5000 power for each unit it consumes and if the number of units is three or more then you get to draw a card. This works especially well with Gaia Emperor allowing you to attack once again with two of the retired units and the draw will help you defend next turn just by getting rid of something minor like a draw trigger in your hand. This generally makes for a great first stride for Tachis and I would highly recommend having at least one of these in a Gaia Emperor deck.

Next up we have a Genesis stride who acts like a mini Vanargandr. This new unit, Vanquishing Beast War Deity, Tyr, has an ACT that has you Soul Blast 3 to check the top card of your deck and choose whether to put it on the top or bottom of your deck. The Soul Blast gives you an additional skill where every time you are to reveal a Grade 1 or greater in your drive check then you Soul Charge 3. With this high amount of Soul Charging you will want to be careful on how many times you use this guy, I’d say using him once for your first stride would be good for a game but you may want a second one as backup. This is also a nice way to give cards like Mythic Beast, Hati and Mythic Snake, Jormungand a good power boost early, though Doom Brace can be an equally good unit to use for your first stride.

Time for Nova Grapplers and they finally get the stride people were waiting for with Meteokaiser, Bustered. People are saying that this new card is a replacement for Victoplasma and I can see why. When Bustered attacks you can Counter Blast 1 and G Blast one G unit and you can restand an amount of rear-guards equal to the amount of face-up Meteokaiser, Bustereds in your G zone. If you do this then at the end of the battle, if you have five rear-guards, you can Counter Blast 1 again and drop two cards from your hand to restand Bustered but he only gets one drive check. Being to stand up himself and up to four rear-guards will be devastating for your opponent, especially with the new Rush skills but I’ve also heard that this works great for Beast Deities by them just constantly standing, forcing your opponent further and further back. There certainly seems to be a wide gap between GRs and RRRs in this set.

As tradition with Neo Nectar our all-powerful stride is a cute little animal, and of course it looks like a cat with wings but apparently that makes it a dragon, this being Omniscience Dragon, Hrimthurs. At the end of the battle that this unit attacked a Vanguard you may Soul Blast 1 to give a rear-guard +4000 power, you may give them a second +4000 power and if you do they are retired at the end of the turn, if that unit had 20000 power or more when it was retired then you also get to draw a card. Combine this guy with Bigbelly and Crayon Tiger for more drawing and better chances of getting that 20000 power and luckily Hrimthurs doesn’t use and Counter Blasts which will help out the deck a lot. I’d recommend aiming the power boost at Guru Wolf and you can defend yourself for days with the amount of cards you’ll have in your hand.

Rikudo Stealth Dragon, Gonrakan is a new stride for Nubatama that forces your opponent to choose two of their rear-guards when he hits the Vanguard circle and they have to put all other rear-guards in their bind zone. If three cards were put into the bind zone through this then your opponent chooses two cards in their bind zone and puts them into the drop zone and puts anything that wasn’t put into the drop zone into their hand at the end of the turn. To weed away their rear-guards further you can use Shiranui’s on-stride ability to stop those intercepts.

Lastly for this week’s Fighter’s Collection cards is Lucky Rise, Elprina the Bermuda Triangle stride who simple but so, so effective. With the ACT to Soul Blast 1 you can bounce two units back to your hand. You can only use this once per turn but it is crazy to let you sort out your field and then get amazing bounce benefits and will let you re-establish your Harmony skills. This can also be used to refuel yourself by bouncing units that will give you Soul Charges and Counter Charges.

So for the new DAIGO deck coming out, along with Sanctuary Guard Dragon and Sanctuary Guard Guarantee we were promised a new Sanctuary Guard Grade 3, Sanctuary Guard Arc, and his skills have finally been revealed. Firstly his GB2 skill gives all Grade 1 and lower units +5000 power. So unlike Sanctuary Guard tradition of Grade 1s giving power, the power is given to the Grade 1s. He also gets an on-stride ability to discard one card and search your deck for one Grade 1 or less and bring it onto the field, on top of that, the newly called unit and your Vanguard get +3000 power. As you can probably tell, this works amazingly well with Sanctuary Guard Regalie and we have yet to see what the skill of the new Sanctuary Guard Imperial stride but we can only guess that it will most likely word with having a large amount of Grade 1s as is Sanctuary Guard tradition.

Daigo himself even gets a promo stride for Entrager. Sanctuary Guard DAIGO is just a vanilla stride unfortunately but due to him being Entrager the chances of us actually getting him in English is extremely slim.

Continuing with the promo cards we have a Gear Chronicle card, Steam Maiden, Kuluracina. When she is placed on the rear-guard circle each player may put a card from their drop zone into their deck. If both players do put a card away then the player controlling Kuluracina gets to Counter Charge 1. Having to rely on your opponent to put one back into the deck is very risky. They may want to put their triggers or perfect guards back but they will probably think it’s not worth it if you’ll be able to pull off more deadly skills.

For Kagero we have Dragon Knight, Pharrell, a 15k booster for Blazing units. He’s usually a 5k Grade 1 but if he’s boosting a unit with Blaze he boosts 10k and if that unit is Blazing then he gives 15k! This can lead to some very strong columns but we’ll have to see what kind of cards will have Blaze in the future.

Lastly we have a Blaster Dark promo which has alternate art similar to the Blaster Blade promo recently. Blaster Blade’s art showed him with Thing Saver in the background where the new Blaster Dark has Phantom Blaster in the background.

That’s everything for this week. Join me again for next week where there will most likely be more showing for Kagero’s new cards as well as more Fighter’s Collection cards and perhaps even some G-BT07 spoilers.

Cardfight Vanguard singles are available to purchase at Big Orbit Cards: Cardfight Vangua r d.

Cardfight!! Vanguard Weekly Card Update #27

January 12, 2016Cardfight!! Vanguard, ReviewsBermuda Triangle, Cardfight!! Vanguard, cfv, Dark Irregulars, Gear Chronicle, Granblue, Link Joker, Neo Nectar, Nubatama, Pale Moon, Spike Brothers, TachikazeJames

Welcome once again to the weekly Vanguard update. This week we get to see some Technical Booster fun along with a bunch of promos so be prepared for a lot of Technical goodness.

I’ll start off with the newly shown R stride for Nubatama. Rikudo Stealth Dragon, Zaramerakan seems to be a rather more complex version of Rikudo Stealth Dragon, Gedatsurakan that works more with the new Afterimage keyword. When Zaramerakan’s attack hits you choose one card from your opponent’s hand and bind it and if you have three or more rear-guards with the Afterimage keyword then your opponent chooses a card from their bind zone and retires it. Not being able to choose which card to retire is a bummer but it at least allows you to put a card in the bind zone beforehand which Gedatsurakan didn’t let you do. Gedatsurakan would still be best for older Nuba builds though Zaramerkan works great in the new G decks.

Speaking of units with Afterimage, Stealth Rogue of the Mirror Moon, Tsubakuro is a new unit that specialises in defending though thanks to the Afterimage skill you can attack with him and then defend next turn. His skill is simple and with a GB1 that gives him +5000 shield making him a 10k guarder. The downside is that he’s a 6k Grade 1 so even when on the offence he won’t be doing much damage.

Another Afterimage unit is Stealth Dragon, Onibidoushi, a stand trigger that can either go back into your deck or into your hand. When he is placed on a rear-guard circle with a GB1 you can draw a card and put him back onto the top of your deck and give another unit +3000 power until the end of turn. It’s nice for the extra card though getting rid of a 10k shield like that can be risky. This card id yet another way for people to screw over my SP Witches…

With some Shiranui support we have the Heart Thump Worker clone, Stealth Dragon, Noroi. So as you may know with the Heart Thump Worker clones, when your G boss (In this case Shiranui) attacks you may put Noroi into your soul to draw a card and give Shiranui +5000 power. Along with this clone we also get the LB Enabler Stealth Beast, Kurosakazuki who can really help with the old bosses from BT13, Shura Stealth Dragon, Kujikiricongo and Shura Stealth Dragon, Kabukicongo.

On to Tachikaze we have the Amber clone Blade Dragon, Jigsawsaurus. There is a slight difference compared to most Amber clones and that is as well as the GB1 and CB1 you also have to retire one of your own units, if you do you can also retire one of your opponent’s and this unit gets +5000 power, as well as that he also allows you to draw a card if his attack hits a Vanguard. Thanks to the new Grade 3 Emperor Dragon, Gaiaemperor you can easily get that retired card back onto the field, reactivating on-call abilities and allowing you to rearrange your field.

You could combine Jigsawsaurus with the new Freeze Dragon, Freezernics who makes the best use of being retired. When he is retired, if you have a Gaia Vanguard, you can Counter Charge 1 and Soul Charge 1 and give another unit +2000 power.

When Beam Dragon, Apatomaser is placed on rear-guard circle you may CB1 and SB1 if you have a Vanguard with Gaia in the name and Apatomaser gets +2000 and when he attacks, if he is engorged, he gets +5000 power and you draw an extra card. There seems to be a lot of drawing considering you can easily get these units back as soon as they’re put in the drop zone. This may eliminate any need for Draw triggers in G Tachikaze.

Savage Guardian is the new G Perfect Guard. It’s nice to see the Savages again and the Counter Charge will really help Tachikaze. Along with the new Perfect Guard we also get the Heart Thump Worker clone Cannon Fire Dragon, Parasalauncher who works with Gaia.

Spike Brothers have been shown to have two Perfect Guards, the standard G Perfect Guard, Kissmark, Alma and one without the Counter Charge but with additional skills, Untouchable, Milly. Milly has the charge ability to put into the hand from your rear-guard circle if her attack hits a Vanguard. This works great alongside the new Grade 3, Exceptional Expertise, Rising Nova, who will allow you to bring her out from the deck and give her +5000 power for an 11k attack without boost.

When Axe Diver is placed on rear-guard you may CB1 and SB1 and when you have a Vanguard with Rising in the name you bind one of your own rear-guards and then call it back onto a rear-guard circle. This is great for getting your units to charge and if your unit is then charging it gets +5000 power until the end of turn. This can be superior called by units like Rising Nova in the middle of the battle phase to then essentially stand another unit back up and allow it to charge.

The Heart Thump Worker clone for Spike Brothers is Liar Lip who helps out with your Rising Vanguard and the Limit Break Enabler is Cheer Girl, Elza which is a lot of help for Bad End Dragger.

For promos there’s a big mix of things including a few much needed reprints. Whether these cards are going to be released in English or not is not yet known.

The first new promo is Tickaway Dragon for Gear Chronicle. This is a very interesting Grade 1 that puts a card from your drop zone on the bottom of your deck when one of your other rear-guards in placed on the rear-guard circle due to a Time Leap effect. This will prevent you from decking out and allows you to put those all-important triggers and Perfect Guards back into your deck.

Tachikaze get a very simple booster with Savage Foxy. When she boosts if you have less rear-guards than your opponent, she boosts for an extra 2000 power, making her a 9k booster. Along with this Nubatama also get a booster that is a 6k Grade 1 that gets +4000 power when boosting a Vanguard with a GB1.

The last new promo is Chocolatier Ronne, a Bermuda Triangle Grade 1 who has a very Bermuda-y effect. When she is bounced back into the hand you can CB1 and SB1 to draw a card.

For reprints we have many but they are all very wanted cards. For Pale Moon we have Purple Trapezist, for Dark Irregulars Flying Librarian, Link Joker get Dark Metal Chameleon, Libergal for Royal Paladin, Dandelion Musketeer, Mirkka will get her non-chibi form for Neo Nectar, and finally King Serpent for Granblue.

That’s all for this weekly update of the Technical Booster and promo cards. Be sure to check back next week for the next one!

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