Before we learn how to play Cardfight Vanguard, lets introduce you to the cards themselves! The cards in this game are referred to as units and they come in different variations. First we have normal units which make up majority of your deck and will be your allies which you would usually call on the field. Next we have trigger units which are special cards that grants you power and help you depending on the type of triggers you pull, I’ll be discussing that much later.

First Step to Play Cardfight Vanguard: Reading Cards

Next I’ll explain how to read the cards as there are numbers and symbols that mean different things. Here we have a card shown below.

• Beginning with the top left corner displays a number, that number is the ranking of a card known as grades. Grades are important because they determine whether you can ride into or call them on the field. You can only normal call units that have the same or lower grade as your Vanguard. Grades range from 0 to 3, however, in special circumstances some decks include grades 4 and 5.
• The symbol under the grade is the boost icon, which can change depending on the card’s type. More will be explained later.
• The number on  the left side of the card is the shield value in cases when you want to defend yourself from an attack.
• The number on the bottom is the unit’s power which is the strength the unit has in battle, the bigger the number, the stronger the unit is. The power is how we determine whether the attack is able to hit the opponent or their allies, as long as the power is equal to or above the opponent, then the attack can hit!

How to Play Cardfight Vanguard: The Battlefield

Now that you have a basic understanding of what the cards are, let me explain what the battlefield is. Below is the battle field format with both players.

Firstly, the main area to understand is the center field in blue. That is known as the Vanguard Circle. Your vanguard is placed there and is the main target for both players to attack and deal damage. You can power up your vanguard by riding into units with higher grades to make yourself even stronger!

• Next, we have the yellow circle that surround your vanguard circle, they are called rearguard circles. In those areas, you may call units that either match or is lower than your Vanguard to help aid you in battle.
• The area where you place your deck (face down)  is above the drop zone. The drop zone located on the bottom right corner is where cards are retired or discarded.
• Finally, there is the damage zone on the left side which is an area where your cards go when you take damage from an opponent’s attack. Whoever deals 6 damage to the other player first wins the game!

Attacking and Guarding

Each player draws 5 cards at the start of the game and can send as many of them to the bottom of the deck, redraw, and shuffle the deck. The game officially starts when both players flip their starting vanguard in the top center circle. The starting vanguard is usually a grade 0 and looks kind of like this:

The first player draws a card and rides either from hand, or from their ride deck depending on the format. Riding refers to when the player puts a card on top of their old vanguard, effectively replacing the old vanguard with a new one. The player can call as many units from their hand as they wish, but they can’t attack. After the first player resolves their turn, the second player draws and rides as well, but this time the player going second can attack!

They attack by turning their card sideways, and if they’re attacking with the vanguard, they can perform a drive check.

Triggers: The Spice of Cardfight Vanguard

Triggers are the key defining feature of Cardfight Vanguard. When you attack with your vanguard, you can reveal the top card of your deck as a drive check, and if it has the ability to twin drive, it can reveal two. What you reveal can destroy your opponent, or save you from that last damage. Playing with and against triggers is a key strategy to learn when knowing how to play Cardfight Vanguard.

Each trigger has a variety of effects, whether it be healing a card from your damage zone, adding another critical to one of your units to hit twice as hard, a trigger to draw an extra card and a variety of others! The main effect of a trigger is that it gives power, either in your turn or your opponent’s turn. A single trigger can sway the game to either players’ favor, so keep that in mind when you’re guarding or attacking!

If you decide to take the damage, you perform what is known as a damage check, where you send the top card of your deck to the damage zone. If you reveal a trigger unit during the damage check, you can add power to your vanguard, possibly helping you save cards in your hand when you guard.

Guarding: Your Cards Are Here To Protect

If you decide not to take the damage, you can put as many cards to the center of the field to guard an attack. Combine their shield values with your unit’s power, and that number is greater than the attacking unit’s power, you’ve successfully guarded an attack!

When you’re guarding a vanguard attack, take into account drive checks, because if you didn’t guard high enough, your opponent might check a trigger and break through your shield!

As the game goes on, ride into stronger units to gain powerful abilities! There’s cards that attack twice, gain power, and even let you attack twice with your vanguard. You start off as a grade 0, but you can grow into something larger by the end.

Resources for Skills

As the game goes on and players ride up, you might notice the stack of cards under your vanguard. There are also cards in your damage zone that seemingly have no purpose. There are also symbols in your cards that look like this, depending on the cards you are using.

• The red symbols refer to the cards under your vanguard known as the Soul. These cards act as resources for your cards’ skills. Soul Blast means taking out cards from your soul, and Soul Charge means to add cards to your soul from the deck. Manage your soul well, and you can use your cards’ abilities to their fullest.
• The blue symbols refer to the cards in your damage zone, known as Counter Blasts. Flipping a card face down in your damage zone uses a counter blast. Every deck uses counter blasts for game-changing abilities, but the amount of them you have depends on your opponents attacks, unless you have abilities to Counter Charge, or flip cards face up in your damage zone. Be careful though, because more counter blasts means you’re closer to death!

Playing without skills can help you familiarize how attacking, guarding, drive and damage checking work, but skills add a whole new layer of complexity to the game. Vanguards can suddenly attack twice, rear-guards hit twice as hard, and they could even restrict you from using certain cards to guard. Resources and skills make the difference when the game is nearing the end and both players used everything they had.

How to Play Cardfight Vanguard: Deck Building

Before building your first deck, know that there are three formats that currently exist in Cardfight Vanguard.

Types of Formats

• The Standard Format, which can only play cards that have the ‘D’ logo on them. Deckbuilding revolves around Nations

• The V-premium format, which plays cards that have the ‘v’ logo on them. Deckbuilding revolves around Clans

• The Premium format, utilizing both nation and clan, as long as the clan belongs to the nation the player decides to play

Each nation or clan has their own distinct playstyle and aesthetic, and each nation boasts different archetypes that have their own way of achieving victory. For your first deck, though, explore and find out which card connects with you the most. Playing Vanguard with cards that you feel emotionally attached to makes the game that much more fun!

General Deckbuilding Rules

1. There are 50 cards in a deck, including the starting vanguard. No more and no less.
2. Each unit can be run up to 4 copies. Trigger units follow this rule as well.
3. There are 16 triggers in a deck, and up to 4 of them can be heal triggers.
4. A deck can only run up to 4 sentinels.

These are the main rules to follow for all formats, but before all of that, determine what nation or clan you swear allegiance to.

Conclusion

Just like every game, to truly know how to play Cardfight Vanguard, you got to play it. Find a trading card store near your area, get some friends together and flip some triggers because every game will feel different from the last. Stand up, the Vanguard!