Cardfight!! Vanguard Weekly Card Update #40

April 18, 2016Cardfight!! Vanguard, ReviewsAngel Feather, Cardfight!! Vanguard, cfv, Cray Elemental, G Guardians, Great Nature, Narukami, Shadow Paladin, TachikazeJames

Welcome back to another weekly update of the new cards for Cardfight!! Vanguard. This week we have a bunch more G Guardians for several clans with two being Cray Elementals.

Dark Element, Dysmel is one of the Cray Elemental G Guardians. She has Resist which makes her a strong unit against Dimension Police, as well as that, when she guards you can choose one of your rear-guards and that unit cannot be hit and they gain the effects of resist, which will help you against Kagero, Narukami, and Link Joker. This can help out Royal Paladins if you play on G Guarding more than once in a turn because you will be able to use this to protect a Grade 2 for Laserguard Dragon‘s skill to give you a bigger shield. Another little trick with her, this time if you’re using a Glendios deck, is if your opponent is coming in for a crazy amount of power and crits, use Dysmel to stop one of your Reverse units from getting hit, then use Taboo Star-vader, Rubidium‘s effect to make the attack go to that Reverse unit and the attack becomes nullified.

The other Cray Elemental is Metal Element, Scryew. When this unit is placed on GC you can discard a card from your hand and Scryew will gain +10000 shield. This will prove useful for decks that use many draw triggers as you can discard a 10k shield and a 5k shield to gain a 25k shield. Even if you discard another 10k shield that can help if you are against cards that will prevent you guarding from your hand like Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster “Diablo” and Blue Storm Marine General, Despina.

For Great Nature we have Immortality Professor, Kundalini. When he is placed on the GC you can choose one of your rear-guards to gain an ability that has them retired at the end of the turn to Counter Charge 1. If you give the rear-guard this skill then Kundalini gains +5000 shield. The great thing is you can then intercept with the chosen unit as it doesn’t need to be retired to get the extra shield. You could also use Stamp Sea Otter to avoid any of your rear-guards being retired from the effect, though then you wouldn’t get the Counter Charge. Or you could use Balloon Raccoon to ensure having a big shield the next turn too.

Tachikaze get Iron Armor Chancellor, Dimor Phalanx. If you have less rear-guards than your opponent then this unit gains +5000 shield. This won’t do so well if you are using Ancient Dragons as they have a bit of a habit to bring their guys back from the drop zone but with the new G deck it works very well. There are some decks that this may fall a bit short against, such as Shadow Paladins, Murakumo, and G Pale Moon. Though against most match-ups this card should be able to get his extra shield.

Shadow Paladin’s Dark Knight, Ludwik allows for your rear-guards that wouldn’t normally be able to intercept to go into the GC. When he is placed on the GC you may choose one of your Grade 1 or less rear-guards and put it into the GC along with it. Ludwik does not gain any extra shield but can get you an additional 5000 shield, 10000 shield, or perfect guard (As long as you are using the old PGs) from his skill. This doesn’t really help with Witches apart from to use it with Goewin if you superior call her with Lir, but apart from that Witches would do better with the Cray Elementals for now.

Continuing through the United Sanctuary we have the Angel Feather unit, Holy Seraph, Orifiel. She is a sort of limit break G Guardian that only gets the +5000 shield if you have four or more damage. It’s simple but you may want some Cray Elementals in there for early game or if you’re using Holy Seraph, Raphael and Dreamlight Unicorn.

Finally Narukami with their very G-themed G Guardian, Lightning King Spirit Emperor, Vritra. He has a Thunderstrike 1 (Your opponent must have one card in their bind zone) that you must fulfill in order to get his +5000 shield. Luckily you can use this in many decks thanks to Voltage Horn but if you don’t have room for that then you probably won’t be using this in a non-G deck.

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 #29

January 22, 2016Cardfight!! Vanguard, ReviewsGranblue, Neo Nectar, Nova Grappler, Nubatama, Shadow Paladin, Spike Brothers, TachikazeJames

Welcome again to the weekly Vanguard update. The last of the Technical Booster cards have been revealed as well as some cards for G-BT05 with a nice show of the new Granblue units. Let’s finish this Technical Booster off then, shall we!

If you were worried that to get power boosts in the new Spike Brothers you’d have to be charging then you would be wrong. Spike Brothers get the generic (but useful) 12k Grade 2 on their side and all you need is a Generation Break 1. With Moodmaker Nyanrook boosting this card you can get the column up to 23k that turn. Having Nyanrook go to the bottom of the deck can also make a non-boosted Genie a 16k attacker!

Hive Maker is a new Grade 3 for Spike Brothers with a charge ability that allows you to CB1 when he goes back into the deck to choose a card from your hand and bring it onto the field, thus activating that new card’s Charge. However, when Hive Maker is placed onto the Vanguard circle you can CB1 and SB1 to look at the top five cards of your deck and put one card with Charge into your hand. The first ability is where this card truly shines, allowing for additional attacks and additional Charges. I feel this will see a lot of play as a backup Grade 3 in SB decks.

If you needed some Counter Charging and Soul Charging then this little trigger has you covered. Devil Watch is a Stand Trigger with Charge that gives him +3000 power when boosting OR attacking and allows you to Counter Charge and Soul Charge 1. This will really help with keeping up your resources with the kinda big downside of it being a Stand Trigger. Although the fact the Bushiroad are trying to give Stands some love is good, Stands aren’t the best with Spike Brothers due to things going back into the deck after attacking. Still, I’m sure a fair few people will give this card a try and hopefully it works out for them. We also are getting two more vanilla triggers, Magical Manager the Heal Trigger and Mecha Advisor the Draw Trigger.

Lastly for Spike Brothers there are two forerunners. The first one is Psychic Mel with the generic ability to CB1 and search the top five cards for a Grade 3 and put it into your hand. This will work well for Bad End Dragger to ensure that you can Break Ride and maybe to have more Bad Ends in your hand so you can keep on Break Riding turn after turn. Mecha Analyzer is the second forerunner that helps out a bit more with the G decks. With a GB1 and when a rear-guard is put into the deck you can put Mecha Analyzer into your soul, if you do then you can put one of your rear-guards into the bind zone and then put it onto a rear-guard circle and it gets +3000 power. This is great, allowing to essentially stand your rear-guard back up, rearrange it on the field, and put it into charge with an additional 3k on top. I’m sure this card will see heavy play in Rising decks.

Raging Strength Equipment, Hammer Gewalt is a new G unit for Tachikaze. When Hammer Gewalt is Engorged he gains +3000 power and if you Engorged on two units then you can retire a card in your opponent’s front row. This may seem like a big cost but if you stride over Gaiaemperor then you can get those two units back with just a CB1.

Ancient Dragons get more support in this set. The first one I’ll talk about is the Grade 2 Ancient Dragon, Hypnohang that can stand up after attacking and giving +3000 power if you have a Vanguard with Spino in its name and you retire a rear-guard at the end of the battle that Hypnohang attacked. There are currently only two Grade 3s with Spino in their name and they are Ancient Dragon, Spinodriver and Ancient Dragon, Spinocommando. With Spinocommando bringing back the Spinos in this set hopefully we will see them in competative play. Unfortunately you can’t keep on using Hypnohang’s ability to stand up though due to it being a once per turn effect.

Ancient Dragon, Nodtank will help you get more of that sweet, sweet Counter Blasting. When Nodtank is put into the drop zone from a rear-guard circle you may Soul Blast 1 card with Ancient Dragon in its name to Counter Charge 1 and give another unit +4000 power. This helps so much with Tachikaze and I’m sure will be a staple in any Ancient Dragon deck. I’m sure people have been wanting something like this for a very long time but better late than never!

Lastly for Ancient Dragons there is a new forerunner Tiffany clone. Ancient Dragon, Babybird gives +3000 power to two of your Ancient Dragons when he is put into the drop zone. Whether people will be using this or Babyrex will all depend on how badly you need the face-up damage for later game but Babyrex definitely gives you better early game.

Tank Mammoth only has 8k attack but if he’s retired and you CB1 and SB1 you can bring him back onto the field and give him +3000 power. Having to CB1 and SB1 may seem like a bit of a heavy cost and may have people struggling to find room in their deck for him but he’s great for consistency with the high retiring abilities and could be great with Gluttony Dogma.

Tachikaze also get a 12k Grade 2. Accel Tiger Will help in some decks and may be chosen over Tank Mammoth just for the more consistant skill but with a GB1 you will only be getting it late game where as Tank Mammoth has the potential to give some early game pressure.

Sheer Magnum is a new Stand Trigger that can go back into the deck when it’s retired and gives +5000 power to a unit as well as letting you draw a card. I have to say this is probably one of the most useful Stand Triggers yet, for Tachikaze to have this as retire fodder and getting additional power from it helps them so much. Yet again, Stands aren’t the best for this clan but with the ability it really shows that it has potential and will hopefully lead people to use it in their decks.

Closing off on the Tachis we have the last two Savages. We have a very hungry lady named Savage Heroine who has the Engorge ability and for every unit she retires she then gets +3000 power when she attacks. She’s a 6k Grade 1 so chances are you won’t be using her very often but she could be good for a final attack. Plus it’s fun to think of her eating four cyborg dinosaurs in a matter of seconds. The last Savage is Savage Healer, just a vanilla Heal Trigger with a cute girl looking non-savage.

Now for the last lot of the Technical Booster gang, the Nubatama ninjas. Starting off with a Grade 3 named Stealth Beast, Hagurejishi. Hagurjishi is a good backup Grade 3 with Afterimage allowing you to attack and then putting him back into the hand if you want to stride next turn. He also gains +4000 power for each unit placed on rear-guard circle that turn. This skill works but as a Vanguard and rear-guard allowing to rack up some serious power turn after turn.

Stealth Dragon, Kegareshinmyo is another Grade 3 for Nubas who also has Afterimage. When he’s placed on a rear-guard you can give another unit +3000 power. Kegareshinmyo also has a similar ability to Hive Maker for when he’s placed on the Vanguard you can CB1 and SB1 to look at the top five cards of your deck and put one card with Afterimage from them into your hand.

Like the other two, Nubatama also get their 12k attacker. Stealth Beast, Kibamaru unfortunately is one of the weakest out of the three due to the clan he’s a part of. He may still find play just for the consistent power.

Stealth Rogue of Night Fog, Miyabi is the Amber clone of the Nubas. As Amber clones go, with a GB1 and when she’s boosted you can CB1 to give her +3000 power and if you have less cards in your hand than your opponent then you bind an opponent’s card from their hand and it’s put back into their hand at the end of the turn. Letting you bind a random card from their hand is very risky but has the chance to deny them a 10k shield or maybe even a perfect guard, giving you a great offensive advantage.

Stealth Beast, Karasudoji is a new forerunner with the same skill as Psychic Mel to allow you to put it into the soul, Counter Blast 1, and look at the top five cards for a Grade 3 and put it into your hand.

Nubatama also get three vanilla Triggers. Living Method Stealth Rogue, Shigure the Heal Trigger, Stealth Fiend, Warashibehime the Draw Trigger, and Stealth Rogue of Piercing Death, Samidare the Critical Trigger.

Onto the non-Technical Booster cards I will go through the new Granblue units which are very exciting. With another Amber clone we have Pirate Swordsman, Colombard who is extremely useful for the clan. When Colombard attacks and is boosted, with a GB1 and CB1, you can superior call any card from drop zone. With cards like Ruin Shade you can fill your drop zone with a great amount of different cards.

Granblue’s new Grade 3 also shows the effects of the new Hollow keyword. When a card is placed on a rear-guard circle you can choose for it to become Hollowed, if you do you retire it at the end of the turn, becoming Hallowed allows you to activate all sorts of special abilities. The Grade 3 Mighty Rogue, Nightstorm has the Hollow keyword and at the end of the turn that he attacks when he is Hollowed you can CB1 to choose a card from your drop zone with a different name to him and call it to a separate rear-guard circle. He also has the Hive Maker skill for when he’s placed on the Vanguard circle to CB1 and SB1 and look at the top five cards of your deck and put a Hollow from among them into your hand. I’m sure Nightstorm will make a great backup Grade 3 for a lot of Granblue decks with being able to use the drop zone so well.

For a consistent booster we have Seven Seas Helmsman, Nightcrow. You may retire a rear-guard from your field if you have a Vanguard with Seven Seas in its name to replace the retired card with this 7k Grade 1. Combining this with Hades Steersman will allow you to bring out the Steersman when you hit Grade 3 and quickly replace it with Nightcrow for a much bigger boost. I think this card is great, whenever they had something like this before they’ve always had really low power but this having the usual power of a Grade 1 really helps.

Beast Deity, Horned Hulk is there to support the Beast Deities of G-BT05. You can SB1 a card with Beast Deity in its name and rest Horned Hulk to give another Beast Deity +5000 power. This helps a tremendous amount with Deadliest Beast Deity, Ethics Buster Reverse by allowing you to rest and give power then lock those rested units so you’re not missing out as much on the rear-guard power.

Revenger, Dark Breath Angel is bringing back the on-retire abilities for Shadow Paladin. When she is retired due to an effect of one of your cards and you have a Grade 3 or greater Vanguard with Revenger in its name then you can CB1 to superior call a Grade 1 from the deck and put it onto the field. This is similar to Darkpride Dragon but Revenger specific which really helps with Revenger, Phantom Blaster “Abyss” and would allow you to stand him up twice in one turn.

For Neo Nectar we have the new Bloom effect shown. A card goes into Bloom if another card with the same name is placed on a rear-guard circle. Green Shot Elf has the Bloom effect and when she goes into Bloom with a GB1 you can choose up to five units named Green Shot Elf and they get +2000 power and the ability to boost. This should be a great power up over the field with each of the already placed Green Shot Elves giving power and having cards that can gain its name.

Lastly we have a Spike Brothers promo, Devildam Chemist. He’s an early Grade 2 12k with not needing a GB1 but only has 6k power with the ability to SB1 and double his power. This is a nice early aggression but using up the soul like that can be a bit of a double-edged sword.

That’s all for this week. We’ve gone through a lot of cards in such a short amount but the Technical Booster is finally completely revealed. I’m sure next week we’ll be seeing a load of new G-BT05 and G-LD02 cards so make sure to come back for next week’s article!

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

Cardfight!! Vanguard Weekly Card Update #28

January 22, 2016Cardfight!! Vanguard, ReviewsCardfight!! Vanguard, cfv, Gear Chronicle, Gold Paladin, Kagero, Neo Nectar, Nubatama, Spike Brothers, TachikazeJames

Welcome once again to the weekly Vanguard update. Once again more Technical Booster cards have been spoiled along with an announcement for the next Legend deck. The clan who’s had the most love this week is Nubatama.

Like Spike Brothers, Nubatama also get two perfect guards, Stealth Rogue of Veils, Kurenai who is the standard Counter Charger and Stealth Beast, Aramatatabi who doesn’t get to Counter Charge but gets additional skills. Aramatatabi has the Afterimage keyword so she can go back into your hand at the end of turn if your opponent puts a bound card into their hand and you have six or less cards in your hand. As well as that she can also allow you to Soul Blast 1 with a GB1, when you have another copy of her in the drop zone, and when she boosts to force your opponent to retire a card in their bind zone. People may struggle to decide which PG to use but I think it all depends how badly you need those Counter Blasts, if you have a heavy Counter Blast deck then it may be best to go with Kurenai but Aramatatabi is definitely a strong unit that you’ll want to use if you have the chance.

There is also a new forerunner named Stealth Rogue of Cold Wintry Wind, Kamojigusa though full details of this card are unknown. All we know so far is that it has afterimage and the chance to retire a card in your opponent’s bind zone.

Lastly we have the RRR stride for Nubas, Rikudo Stealth Rogue, Atagolord. When Atagolord attacks, with a GB2, CB1, and G Persona Blast your opponent binds a card from their hand and if the number of cards in their hand is three or less he gains a crit. This is a pretty simple skill compared to a lot of the other Nubas but it is useful, the pressure will definitely help for late when you bring out Rikudo Stealth Dragon, Tsukumorakan.

Tachikaze also got their special PG with Barrier Dragon, Styracolord. Unfortunately the whole skill hasn’t been revealed though it seems to have the engorge keyword and when it becomes engorged it gains +5000 power it goes back into your hand, making it a highly defensive and offensive unit. I think Styracolord is the best one out of the three with the sheer power it brings and retiring your own units isn’t a big deal for Tachis because there’s a good chance you’ll just get that unit back onto the field anyway.

The GR for Spike Brothers is the very deadly Great Villain, Dirty Picaro. Picaro can be very strong though it’s probably best not to rely completely on him. When he attacks you can CB2, flip any face-down G unit face-up, and put a card from your hand into your soul to search your deck for card(s) up to the same amount of face-up cards in your G-zone and call them to the field. Giving you the possibility to refresh your whole field mid-battle phase with any cards in your deck is an astonishing ability. It would also allow you to have a whole field of charging rear-guards, though that would leave you with an empty field at the end of it. The biggest problem Picaro has is that he can only be used effectively late game and a CB2 with Spike Brothers is going to be harder to pull off with their heavy Counter Blasting. He is still a solid unit though and a great back-up if everything goes wrong. I would suggest every Spike Brothers deck should have at least one of this if you can get a hold of one.

Frog Raider is a new Grade 1 to help “Rising“. He has a GB1 and when a unit with the charge ability is placed in the same column as him allowing him to really help with the new Spike Brothers by standing up several times throughout the game to give constant boosts. A great card for Frog Raider is Heave Wheeze. When Heave Wheeze is charging he gains +10000 power. These two together can easily get to 26k and with Dirty Picaro you can easily bring out Coe Ho to both side columns allowing for some extremely strong attacks towards you opponent.

A few promos have been shown and Maiden of Sweet Berry for Neo Nectar is one of them. This little 6k Grade 1 has a GB1 ACT that allows you to choose one of your rear-guards and clone it with no Counter Blasts or Soul Blasts. Once you have cloned the rear-guard you have to put Sweet Berry into your deck and shuffle. This is a useful backup but not necessary, two of this card may be enough in most Neo Nectar decks.

Chrono Dran will be getting a reprint as a promo with a golden hot stamp. Another hot-stamped promo is Knight of Early Morning, Koel the Gold Paladin Grade 0. His skill has yet to be revealed but I feel he will be a forerunner who works well alongside Gurguit due to the title of Koel.

Well… the second Legend Deck has finally been revealed. Last time we had Ren Suzugamori’s Shadow Paladins… but this time… it’s Kagero’s time to shine!

Ol’ Dragonic Overlord is back as Dragonic Overlord “The Legend”. His and many other’s skills have yet to be revealed but we were also shown a few more familiar faces in their new forms of Lizard Hero, Undeux; Berserk Lord Dragon; Dragon Partner, Monica; and Armor of Flame Dragon, Bahr as well as the art of what looks like a new form of Nouvelle Vague as a stride.

There is one card that has had his skill revealed though and that’s Emperor Dragon Knight, Nehalem. If you have a Vanguard with “Overlord” in the name then Nehalem gets +2000 power making him an 11k Grade 2, but when your Grade 4 Vanguard attacks then he gains another +5000 power. Using this with Dragonic Overlord “the Ace” can give Nehalem a boost of +12000 in total making him 21k on his own.

We will hopefully be seeing more of this new Legend Deck in the near future, named G Legend Deck 2: The Overlord blaze “Toshiki Kai” in the Japanese version. If you miss your old Kagero buds you may want to pick one of these up and I’m sure it will be just as good, if not better, than the first Legend Deck.

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

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!

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Cardfight!! Vanguard Weekly Card Update #25

December 11, 2015Cardfight!! Vanguard, ReviewsAngel Feather, Aqua Force, Genesis, Granblue, Great Nature, Neo Nectar, Nubatama, Royal Paladin, Spike Brothers, TachikazeJames

Welcome back to the weekly Vanguard update! All the Fighter’s Collection cards are almost completely spoiled. We received some great spoils this week including some support I’m especially looking forward to!

First we have the Neo Nectar stride for the “Maiden of” support. Yggdrasil Protection Maiden of Lotus is almost like a quicker version of Dream-spinning Ranunculus, Ahsha. If you have a heart with “Maiden of” in it’s name and with a Counter Blast and Soul Blast of 1 you can give up to three units with “Maiden of” in their name in the front row +5000 power. If their attacks hit a Vanguard then you search the top five cards of the deck for a card with the same name as a card on your Vanguard circle or rear-guard circle and call it to rear-guard. This works great for Maiden of Trailing Rose and Maiden of Rambling Rose with their goal of cloning themselves on the rear-guard circles, allowing for the easy power boost. It may be useful if you only have one Hollyhock Knight on the field to get a good chance of cloning him for your turns when you can’t stride.

Next we have Omniscience Dragon, Cath Palug, the Great Nature stride supporting “Honorary Professor” (AKA Chatnoir). Whenever a rear-guard attacks and you have a heart with “Honorary Professor” in the name, you may CB1 to give one unit +4000 power. At the end of that turn draw a card and retire that unit. This stacks really nicely if you keep giving the power to one unit and being able to stand that unit back up to allow you to draw multiple cards for one retire. This is where Crayon Tiger will help you to stand other units and let you draw even more! The downside to this is that those Counter Blasts are going to rack up quickly, though luckily Great Nature are quite good at Counter Charging.

Okay, it’s time for the cards I’m really looking forward to… Jewel Knight support! Climax Jewel Knight Lord, Evangeline does wonders for Jewel Knights by letting you turn any G unit face up if you have a Jewel Knight heart and giving every card with Jewel Knight in its name +3000 power for every face up Climax Jewel Knight Lord, Evangeline in the G zone. If you’re using a pure Jewel Knight deck like my own then you can easily see how the power of this will rack up. Many Jewel Knight cards allow you to superior call other units granting you the chance to easily have a powerful full field. With a drawn out game against a defensive deck you will be able to use this lady up to three times, first giving everything +3000, next +6000, and after that +9000 to all of your units! Making +18000 power columns!

A Grade 1 for Jewel Knights was also revealed. Bringing Calling Jewel Knight, Christine onto the field when there are three or more other rear-guards with “Jewel Knight” in their name allows you to Counter Blast 1 and reveal a Grade 3 from your hand to search your deck for a Grade 3 Jewel Knight and call it to a rear-guard circle. At the end of the turn that you use this skill you put the newly called Grade 3 into your hand and then discard a card. You can use this to ensure you can continue to break ride with Pure Heart Jewel Knight, Ashlei or you may want to do it just to have something to use to stride next turn. With no Generation Break you can use this before you’ve even hit Grade 3 to guarantee you ride the card you want.

With the new Aqua Force Clan Booster you may have been worried because Trans-core didn’t get a new card. Luckily the Fighter’s Collection come bearing merciful gifts. Blue Flight Marshal Dragon, Mithril-core Dragon works only if you have a “Trans-core” heart (Currently only Blue Flight Dragon, Trans-core Dragon). When any of your unit’s attacks hit a Vanguard on the third wave or more your opponent must choose between discarding a card or having you draw a card. This can get pretty intense with the amount of times Aqua Force can stand up and have enough power to land a hit.

Stealth Rogue of Night Fog, Agitomaru is a Grade 2 for Nubatama with no specific support (Probably because the support for Nubatama in general is very slim) but his skill can prove to be very useful. When Agitomaru’s attack hits a Vanguard, retire a card in your opponent’s bind zone. Sweet and simple. This will work well in many Nubatama builds but what they really need now is a way to power up this guy to make sure that attack hits. This is the second rear-guard ability that allows you to retire from the bind zone but I feel Nubas deserve more so here’s hoping to more bind zone retiring in the Technical Booster!

In this set there has been OTT Witch support, Shadow Witch support, and now we have Genesis Witch support. Sacred Water Witch Queen, Clove is just what you’d expect from a Genesis Witch, by Soul Blasting 6 you can give all units with “Witch” in their name +5000 power, and if you have two or more hearts she gains an extra crit. Like Evangeline, you can get some seriously strong columns with this. Not as big as Evangeline’s potential but with Clove you get the higher power quicker, you can use her four times in total, and she gets the extra critical.

For the “Bad End” Spike Brothers rear-guard support we get the Grade 1 Death Flag Dragger. If he is placed on a rear-guard circle during your battle step then you may reveal a Grade 3 from your hand, and then search your deck for a “Bad End” card (Bad End Dragger) and put it into your hand. This will be good for getting the initial Bad End Dragger but with Hand of Deity, Good End Dragger you won’t be using Death Flag Dragger’s skill much late game.

Love Sniper, Nociel is the Grade 3 that the “Nociel”s deserve. You may CB1 when a card with “Nociel” in its name is put into the damage zone, if the card that was put in the damage zone is still face up then you can put it into you hand and put the top card of your deck into your damage zone. She also has a second ability that allows you to put a card from the damage zone into the hand when she’s placed on Vanguard circle if you put a card from your hand into the damage zone. This is really the kind of thing you would expect from a Nociel card and now that she’s got a form in every Grade you can finally make a proper deck around her.

Lastly for Fighter’s Collection we have the Granblue Grade 3 for “Seven Seas”. Seven Seas Sage, Purgeton has your classic Granblue skill of Riding from the drop zone. At the beginning of the ride phase, if you have a Grade 2 or greater Vanguard with “Seven Seas” in its name you can CB2 to bring this guy from the drop zone onto the Vanguard circle. Also, when he is placed on the Vanguard circle you can bring another card from your drop zone and put it on the rear-guard circle. This may be good to bring out King Serpent to essentially make the Ride and call a CB1 but using things like Sea Strolling Banshee for hand advantage may also be a good idea.

That is all for Fighter’s Collection for this week however there are a few more cards to go over.

Cheer Girl, Lucy is a new promo for Spike Brothers. We’re not sure how it will be distributed in the west yet but it has a neat ability to give a boosted unit with the “Charge” keyword +5000 power on top of the boosted power already given by her and then at the end of the battle that the boosted unit attacks you put them on the bottom of your deck.

Lastly we have been shown the three stride fodders for the Technical Booster. Prism Bird (Tachikaze), Acrobat Verdi (Spike Brothers), and Stealth Beast, Katarigitsune (Nubatama). The only one that we know the Grade 3s name for is Katarigitsune who helps you find a card with “Shiranui” in its name.

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

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Cardfight!! Vanguard Weekly Card Update #23

November 27, 2015Cardfight!! Vanguard, ReviewsDark Irregulars, Fighte's Collection 2015 Winter, Gear Chronicle, Granblue, Kagero, Narukami, Nova Grappler, TachikazeJames

Welcome once again to the weekly Vanguard update! Fighter’s Collection 2015 Winter has shown the most amount of spoils throughout the seven days with a sprinkle of promos and some Granblue support which is always good.

I think it’s only fair to talk about Granblue first, they’ve waited a long enough time. The first new card from the trial deck is their new Grade 3 boss, Vampire Princess of Night Fog, Nightrose. Many people have been waiting a long time to see this card’s ability and it shows that it was worth the wait. When a card would stride over Nightrose you may Counter Blast 1 to bring a card from the drop zone onto the field and give it +2000 power. This works very nicely with Sea Strolling Banshee to get some extra hand advantage. She also has a GB2 ability to bring back a rear-guard that was just retired by putting the top three cards of your deck into your drop zone. The GB2 ability will work great against clans like Kagero and Narukami but as most Granblue players may know you can’t use this kind of skill too often otherwise you will easily deck-out. Cocytus players will know the struggle… All-in-all though this card is really good to get and maintain field advantage. A keyword named “Hollow” has been talked about too though Nightrose herself doesn’t have it so rumour has it that it will be a rear-guard ability that takes effect once a card is put into or taken out of the drop zone.

Of course Nightrose isn’t alone, she also has her faithful stride fodder that even show in Nightrose’s artwork. Tommy the Ghostie Brothers are the standard “When placed on (RC), search for X” and “While you are paying the cost for Stride, this card gets grade+2.”. This has been shown to be a promo but the Ghostie Brothers may still appear in G-BT06 like how the original stride fodders were also promos.

The other promo is a Grade 2 Narukami unit, Eradicator, Unruly Dragon. When this unit intercepts you can Counter Blast 1 Eradicator, as long as you have an “Eradicator” Vanguard, to choose an opponent’s unit that isn’t attacking or boosting and retire it. We have seen this kind of thing before with the Kagero unit Lizard Soldier, Bellog and it’s nice to see them make more skills related to guarding.

Last week we saw Helldeity Seal Dragon, Crossorigin and this week we get his Grade 2 support in the form of Hellfire Seal Dragon Knight. With a Counter Blast 1 and Soul Blast 1 you can prevent your opponent from intercepting until the end of turn and this unit gets +2000 power for every Grade 2 on your opponent’s side of the field. This card gets power even for your opponent’s Grade 2 legion mate which is always a nice way to even the battlefield. He will be especially powerful against G era Royal Paladins due to their heavy Grade 2 support with stuff like Techgal, so RP players will really have to change up their strategy when against Seal Dragons, not that they have much choice when it comes to Crossorigin though.

Beast Deity also get some more support with Beast Deity, Dragotwist, their new Grade 2 unit for Fighter’s Collection. He follows a pattern that has come about in the G series with Nova Grappler retiring. When he is stood back up during your battle phase you can Counter Blast 1 to choose one of your opponent’s rear-guards with power less than or equal to this card and retire it. You can use Brainy Papio and Cool Hank to get this guy stood back up and having Tribrut as your Vanguard will allow you to power up and retire two units instead, though with the downside of using up a lot of Counter Blasts.

A while back Blade Wind, Sullivan was revealed as a new Blade Wing Grade 3 which planted a nice amount of hope for some more Blade Wing support and it turns out the hope grew into a card named Wings of Annihilation, Blade Wing Tibold. When Tibold is placed on the Vanguard circle and you have a heart with “Blade Wing” in its name, you put all the cards in your drop zone into your deck and then shuffle your deck. If you have fifteen or more cards in your soul then until the end of the turn all rear-guards in your front row get +10000 power, if you don’t have fifteen or more in your soul then you Soul Charge 5. Putting cards from your drop zone into your soul is what Dark Irregulars have needed for a long time and with the addition of Sullivan it was getting a bit desperate so with this card and Sullivan coming out in the next set it becomes a great little archetype to work with within the Dark Irregulars.

The first ever GR, Chronoscommand Dragon, gets his very own cross stride with Interdimensional Dragon, Chronoscommand Revolution. Unlike other cross strides he unflips a version of himself but Chronoscommand Dragon determines what will happen towards the end of the effect. When Revolution is placed on the Vanguard circle you may Counter Blast 1 and G Persona Blast to put all your opponent’s rear-guards on the bottom of their deck, then if you have a Chronoscommand Dragon face up in your G zone choose two of your rear-guards and put all other rear-guards to the bottom of your deck, however if you don’t have Chronoscommand Dragon in your G zone you put all your rear-guards to the bottom of your deck. The original Chronoscommand needed to hit and was a Counter Blast 2 so this is a great step up from that to wipe your opponent’s field, even with the cost of putting your own units into your deck.

People’s predictions were correct about the identity of the Angel Feather stride, it is indeed a new Nociel card. Holy Seraph, Nociel allows you to choose two rear-guards to put into the damage zone at the end of that battle that Nociel attacked and if you have a Nociel heart, then you may choose two cards from your damage zone and call them to rear-guard and if they have “Nociel” in their name they get +5000 power. This allows for some strong extra attacks with the bonus that if you put Love Machine Gun, Nociel on the field then you can exchange your hand for some cards in the damage zone. Then you can also create some strong columns with Thousand Ray Pegasus.

The last thing we have on our plate for Fighter’s Collection this week is the two new Tachikaze unit which gives support the Rex archetype. Our stride for Rex is Destruction Tyrant, Hellrex Maxima which has the ACT to let you retire one of your own units to then search your deck for a card with “Rex” in its name and put it into the bind zone, then you choose up to three units in your front row to give +4000 power. This card is especially good for Destruction Dragon, Dark Rex who can be superior called onto the Vanguard circle if your Vanguard’s attack didn’t hit, definitely an amazing boost that the Rexs needed.

Our second Rex is the Grade 3 Destruction Dragon, Squall Rex. When Squall Rex is in your hand you can put him into the bind zone to give a unit +3000 power. His second ability then works from the bind zone where you can retire a rear-guard and Counter Blase 1 when a card with “Rex” in it’s name attacks a Vanguard and call Squall Rex from your bind zone to the rear-guard circle. Providing you have Ravenous Dragon, Megarex on the field you could bring Squall Rex into the game while your Vanguard is still Grade 2 and get an extra attack in to give early pressure.

That’s all of the cards for this week. There was a lot of good support for all sorts this week. There aren’t many cards left to reveal for Fighter’s Collection and I will continue to hope for a Jewel Knight stride for the Royal Paladin spot. Thank you for joining us this week and don’t forget to join us again next week for the cards revealed in the next seven days.

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Cardfight!! Vanguard Weekly Card Update #20

November 8, 2015Cardfight!! Vanguard, Previews, ReviewsCardfight!! Vanguard, cfv, Gear Chronicle, Moonlit Dragonfang, Narukami, Nubatama, Oracle Think Tank, Pale Moon, Spike Brothers, Tachikaze, The RECKLESS RAMPAGEJames

Welcome once again to the weekly Vanguard update! We have a huge amount of cards to get through this week from the Monthly Bushiroad reveals cards from all the different clans and even showing cards from the new G Technical Booster: The RECKLESS RAMPAGE, which gives support to the very unsupported Tachikaze, Spike Brothers, and Nubatama!

To start off we have a card that every deck can use. Remember Miss Mist? That one card that was essentially a perfect guard against Legions with Grade 2 mates? Well thanks to this new little Cray Elemental everyone can have that power within their hands! If you use this little guy to guard and your opponent has a Grade 2 Vanguard then he completely nullifies the attack. Unlike Miss Mist, Heat Elemental, Juju can’t use this card to perfect guard anything below Grade 2 but being able to perfect guard most Legions is what will really draw people to the card.

History-maker Dragon, who has been shown a lot in the anime, has been revealed to come in Trial Deck 6. With a Generation Break 1 when he attacks a Vanguard you can Counter Blast 1 to Time Leap one of your other rear-guards (Place it in the Bind Zone and search your deck for a card with one Grade higher then that card and place it on a rear-guard circle. Then at the end of the turn put the newly called unit at the bottom of your deck and call the bound unit back to a rear-guard circle.). This is a great card for a Trial Deck and doesn’t need to be boosted unlike Amber. Another Trial Deck card is an 11k Grade 3, Classic Gun Dragon. When he is placed on Vanguard or rear-guard circle you can give a rear-guard the Time Leap ability when that unit hits a Vanguard to then choose another of your rear-guards and Time Leap it. It seems that even with just the Trial Deck cards you’ll be able to flop all your cards around the field and reap the benefits of on-call abilities and on-bind abilities.

Now for the clans that everyone has forgotten about! For the Technical Booster I’ll start with Tachikaze’s Destruction Tyrant, Twin Tempest. With a Generation Break 2, Counter Blast 2, Soul Blast 2, AND retiring three of your rear-guards, this Stride unit retires all rear-guards on the field. Luckily this effect happens when he attacks, giving your rear-guards a chance to attack first. Make sure not to forgot Tachikaze’s abilities of coming back after being retired, allowing for even more attacks and an easy fill of your field. It’s a very heavy cost but I’m expecting a Grade 3 with an on-stride skill of Counter Blast 1 to call two units you retired back to rear-guard, as well as perhaps some units that are free to call back but have a Generation Break 1.

An odd but cool Grade 3 that Tachikaze gets is Ancient Dragon, Spinocommando. He has a good ol’ Limit Break 4 which allows him to retire one of his “Ancient Dragon” rear-guards at the end of the turn to choose a Grade 3 from your Soul, Ride it, then put Spinocommando from your Soul into your hand and then draw an extra card. On the turn that he is placed on the Vanguard Circle he can also call an “Ancient Dragon” that was put into the Drop Zone to a open rear-guard circle with a Counter Blast 1 with “Ancient Dragon” in it’s name. Getting Spinocommando back in your hand can either be used to Stride, help to activate his second skill every turn, or even just for for extra rear-guard power, the draw is always nice too. A great card to use this with would be the Break Ride, Ancient Dragon, Spinodriver, to give you +10000 power and +1 Crit every turn!

The strider for Nubatama is Stealth Dragon, Shiranui, and as always with Nubatama this guy will be messing with your opponent completely. With a Counter Blast 1 when you Stride over this guy you choose one of your opponent’s rear-guards and bind it, then your opponent has to discard a card from their hand. With a hit from Rikudo Stealth Dragon, Gedatsurakan you will be able to discard two cards from your opponent’s hand which can easily make a big difference for what your opponent can do on their turn. If your opponent manages to get their hand size up again then that can still work in your favour. With Shiranui’s GB2, if the number of cards in your hand is less than your opponent’s, then he gets +5000 power and +1 Crit! From this card I have a lot of hope for the future of these demon-dragon-ninjas.

The Spike Brothers card that has been shown, Bulldozer Daub, has also shown off Spike Brothers’s new keyword, “Charge”. A unit goes into the Charge state when they are placed onto a rear-guard circle due to an effect, then at the end of the turn it goes to the bottom of the deck. In exchange for them going back to the deck they are gifted with powerful abilities which Bulldozer Daub will be showing off. He’s a Grade 3 with a GB1 that, when he’s in Charge state, gains +10000 power until the end of the turn. This is an amazing back-up Grade 3 and may finally be the one to replace Juggernaut Maximum. I’m sorry, Juggernaut Maximum, though I’m sure many players would thank you for helping them since the very beginning.

The new Susanoo Stride, Destroyer Dragon Battle Deity, Kamususanoo, has caused a fair bit of disappointment to the fans of Oracle Think Tanks. With a G Persona Blast he gains the ability that, when his attack hits, look at the top two cards of your deck and choose one to put in your hand and then put the other at the bottom of your deck. He also gains a GB3 which gives all the rear-guards +2000 power. The main issue people have is that the first part of his skill needs his attack to hit and you have to pay the cost before he’s hit. Only drawing one extra card is a bit small for a RRR Oracle Think Tank Stride but I feel the second part really helps OTT. Giving +2000 power to all rear-guards will make Silent Tom that much better and with a boost from the new Imperial Shrine Guard, Sumiyoshi you can get Silent Tom to 21k power! More support for Susanoo comes in the form of Imperial Shrine Guard, Akagi which is the Glimmer Breath clone. When he’s placed on rear-guard circle with a GB1, CB1, and SB1, with a Susanoo Vanguard, you can look at the top two cards of your deck, choose one to put in your hand, and then he gains 2k power. Some people may still want to use Diviner, Kuroikazuchi instead but this guy can by nice for the extra power and getting a choice between two instead of just drawing one from the top of your deck.

People may be disappointed with Susanoo but when it comes to the Magus’s it’s completely the opposite! One Who Sees the Stars, Globe Magus is the Stride unit for the Magus sub-clan and does what they do best on a much larger scale than ever before. If you have a heart with “Magus” in it’s name Globe Magus gains a Continuous ability that allows it to look at the top card of your deck at any time as many times as you like while she’s the Vanguard. This will be great for Stellar Magus to easily be able to draw extra cards when she attacks, and it’s always nice to see if you’ll be getting triggers. You can use this effect just before she goes back to the G Zone to see what card you would be getting if you were to take damage on your opponent’s turn.

Flip Crooney is a nice little generic Grade 3 back-up for Oracle Think Tank. With a GB1 and Oracle (Having five or more cards in hand) if his attack hits you may look at the top two cards of your deck and put one into you hand. With no cost this a sweet ability and having Susanoo’s power boost you can make a pretty easy 21k column with him. Beam Shower Turtle Allows for the strong power to be accompanied with strong defence. When he is placed on the guardian circle you may Soul Blast 2 to give him an extra 10k shield, making him a 15k defender. It is likely that there will be a few cards in your Soul that you don’t need so the cost of this card doesn’t seem too bad. The last of the Oracle Think Tank is Magical Calico. He is a new Forerunner with GB1 and Oracle and the ability to go into the Soul and drop one card to search for three cards in your deck, reveal them to your opponent, your opponent then chooses two of the three cards to put into the drop zone and the last one goes to your hand. This may be useful for Legion decks but the GB1 kinda makes it a little harder to use.

Like Susanoo, Dragonic Vanquisher has had his Stride Fusion revealed. Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher “VOLTAGE” can be a great alternative for Conquest Dragon depending on how your deck works. With a G Persona Blast he gains two abilities, the first one being an on-hit ability where your opponent must retire one of their rear-guards and then you choose two of their units in the drop zone and bind them. The second one is a GB3 that gives your front row +3000 power for each card in your opponent’s bind zone. This can add up for some ridiculously strong units in the front row but does require some good preparation first.

As well as having Rockclimb Dragoon and Voltage Horn Dragon, there is also a forerunner that binds. Wildrun Dragoon has a GB1 that allows him to go into the soul to let your opponent choose a card from their drop zone to bind and then if you have a Thunder Break 2 you can give a rear-guard +5000 power. Dragon Dancer, Bernadette is a 6k Grade 1 with a Thunder Strike 2 that allows for a Soul Blast 1 to give the boosted unit +3000 power and if the attack hits you can Counter Blast 1 to have your opponent retire one of their units and then binds it. All this power and binding will rack up to help for a final push with “VOLTAGE”.

The new Eradicator Stride seems like a powered up version of Gauntlet Buster Dragon which is most likely why they work together. True Eradicator, Finish Blow Dragon gets the fairly cheap cost of Counter Blast 1 and G Persona Blast to gain the ability where he gains +5000 power and +1 Crit for everyone of your opponent’s rear-guards that are retired on that turn. As a bonus, if you have Gauntlet Buster as a heart, he gets to retire a unit when you pay for this skill. This can be used with so many different cards to maximise the effectiveness such as Cho-Ou, Voltage Horn, Koenshak, Cho-Jun, Saucer Cannon Wyvern, and more.

Eradicator, Angercharge Dragon can also help give a power boost to Finish Blow. When Angercharge is placed on a rear-guard circle you may Counter Blast 1 with “Eradicator” in its name to take the top card of your deck and put it into your damage zone. If that card have “Eradicator” in it’s name then your opponent must retire one of their cards. At the end of the turn you heal a card in the damage zone, meaning you can heal the card you Counter Blasted. This is a good back up but risky and if you’re at five damage he becomes useless unless you want to lose.

Clown Demonic Dragon, Lunatech Dragon allows for a strong first Stride for Pale Moon. You may G Persona Blast when he is placed to give him the effect where every card that comes out from your Soul onto a rear-guard circle gains +2000 power. Considering your units will be coming in and out of the Soul like nobody’s business this extra power will really help, especially when you can only bring a couple out so your front row will be able to hit without needing a boost. If you then have a GB3 he gains an extra critical just like that! This is a pretty solid card but we’ll have to see what the new Harri Stride can do before we can really judge Lunatech.

Darkside Princess is a Grade 2 Pale Moon unit allows you to give it +5000 power and if you do then she is sent to the Soul after the battle. This card works really well with Moonlight Melody Tamer, Betty, allowing you to call a new unit with Magia where Darkside Princess once stood. Through Betty you can then call Flying Peryton who has Magia and GB1 for when he is placed on a rear-guard circle you have Soul Charge 1 and then you are able to choose a card from your Soul to call to the rear-guard space in the same column as this card. It would retire Betty used in this way but it will give you a fresh new stood column to attack with.

Another way to get Flying Peryton could be through Burst Rough Dragon. with a GB1 you may SB1 at the beginning of your main phase to call a card from your Soul to a rear-guard circle and then put it back at the end of the turn. Also when he is placed on the Vanguard circle you may CB1 and SB1 to choose a Grade 2 from your Soul and place it on a rear-guard circle. The second ability isn’t Magia so it stays there and you are able to Stride the same turn.

Accomplished Pen and Sword Gear Hound Continues with Gear Chronicle’s Time Leap abilities. When your drive check reveals a Grade 3 and you are at GB1 you may Time Leap this unit. Making this a Grade 3 will allow for a continuous attack force on your side and if you have two of these then your opponent will be using up a lot of their hand to defend your front row. There is also a Grade 1 version of this called Becoming Cornerstone Gear Turtle.

Steam Battler, Ku-bau is a Grade 3 that takes advantage of being Time Leapt (Time Leap-ed? I dunno..). When he is placed on rear-guard circle from the Bind Zone you may Counter Charge 1. He also has a Vanguard ability for when he is placed on the Vanguard circle you may CB1 and SB1 to give another unit the Time Leap ability so at the end of the battle that that unit attacked, you may Time Leap it. Just to make sure every Grade gets Time Leap Tick Tock Worker was shown to be able to Time Leap another rear-guard by going into the Soul. Hopefully they’ll make more cards that take effect in the Bind Zone so all this Time Leaping will be even more effective.

Messiah has gained even more forms! Her new forms are Sacrifice Messiah who locks herself when another of your rear-guards are locked. If you do you may Counter Charge 1 and you can choose a rear-guard to give +3000 power. Being able to lock itself when something else has been locked is great for Amnesty Messiah and Excelics Messiah to gain those power boosts. Blink Messiah is the second new Messiah who is a Heart Thump Worker clone. When your Vanguard with “Messiah” in its name attacks, you may put this into your Soul and your Vanguard gains +5000 power and you draw a card.

Well, this concludes this rather large update. I have to say the thing I find the most exciting out of all of this is the new Technical Booster which is released on February 19th. I just really enjoy seeing not very supported clans getting a big boost. It’s also nice to see all these Keywords being used in the cards, it makes every clan just that little bit more different. Thank you for joining us this week and don’t forget to join us again next week for the cards revealed in the next seven days.

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