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Cardfight!! Vanguard Guides 

Vanguard: An Auto Ability Anecdote

Tom

Last night, while playing a game of Vanguard, we had an interesting (and confusing) interaction come up. I was playing Bermuda Triangle (in preparation for the Sneak Peak on 22/08), while my opponent was playing Gear Chronicle. Now, Gear Chronicle usually have very simple effects: they return a unit to the bottom of the deck, then they continue on their merry way. However, what confused us last night was this: Interdimensional Beast, Upheaval Pegasus.

For those of you unfamiliar the the card, Pegasus’ effect is somewhat unusual. It consists of two parts: the first is to return all your opponent’s rear-guards to the bottom of the deck, then the second part is to call an equal number from the top of the deck. What makes it interesting in terms of rulings is each of those cards is called one at a time. Our question was how this interacts with AUTO abilities, specifically, ones which activate on-call.

If all of the cards were called at the same time, there would be little confusion. Say that my opponent wanted to use Pegasus, then follow up with the on-stride of Chronojet Dragon. Upheaval Pegasus’ ability would entirely resolve, we enter the ‘check timing’ step, his Chronojet Dragon’s effect resolves, and then I get to use my on-calls. This uses the nice and easy principle that, when both players effects activate at the same time, the turn player gets to resolve them first.

G-CB01-010EN-RRBut, as I said, Upheaval Pegasus calls them all one by one. I had three units on the field, so I had to call three units in succession. My first was Superb New Student, Shizuku (pictured). Her ability is based on Harmony, so it’s not quite an on-call, but similar enough! My second unit was a Grade 2, so I placed that in the same column as Shizuku (triggering her Harmony effect), and my third was largely irrelevant. In this way, my AUTO ability triggered part way through the resolution of another units ability. Therefore, when do I get to use Shizuku’s effect?

The Cardfight!! Vanguard Comprehensive Rulebook has a few things to say on the issue:Rulings 1And:Rulings 2So, there is no question that I can and must activate my AUTO ability, but when exactly does it happen? In our game state, the Gear Chronicle player has two AUTO abilities that he needs to resolve – that of Upheaval Pegasus (mid-resolution) and that of Chronojet Dragon (on standby). I have one AUTO ability to resolve – that of Suberb New Student, Shizuku. According to the official rules, we should be checking the AUTO abilities of the Gear Chronicle user before my own. As such, the priority has to be on the full resolution of his Upheaval Pegasus’ effect. My AUTO ability does not get to resolve partway through the resolution of his Upheaval Pegasus, rather, if any ability could interrupt and resolve, it would have to be his Chronojet Dragon’s, as he is the turn player! As such, the actual sequence of events would be:

  1. Stride Interdimensional Beast, Upheaval Pegasus
  2. (Timing window for the effects of Interdimensional Beast, Upheaval Pegasus and for Chronojet Dragon)
  3. Start of Upheaval Pegasus’ effect
  4. My three units are returned to the deck
  5. I call Superb New Student, Shizuku to my back row
  6. I call Admired Sparkle, Spica to my front row, in Shizuku’s column
  7. (Shizuku enters Harmony State; timing window for Shizuku’s effect)
  8. I call my final unit
  9. Chronojet Dragon’s AUTO ability resolves, returning one of my units to the bottom of the deck
  10. Shizuku’s ability resolves.

So, as we can see, it turns out that Upheaval Pegasus’ effect interacts with other effects as if all the units were called at once. Essentially, the whole ability needs to resolve, then the turn player’s AUTOs, then the non-turn player’s AUTOs. Even though several cards might have their effects triggered at several different times, they all wait on standby until the turn player has finished.

As a final note, what happens if he uses his Chronojet Dragon to remove my Shizuku before her effect is resolved? According to the rulebook:Rulings 3My Shizuku still would get to use her ability, even when removed.

So, in the end, our confusion was misplaced. All we needed to do was resolve the ability fully and play on as if it were any other ability (which we did), but it turns out that was actually the correct ruling! It opened up some interesting questions about simultaneous effects, so hopefully this can be helpful for when situations come up in your games.

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