Frustrations have been building over Overtriggers recently, and while I remain sympathetic to those who feel angry over their games being swept by a single card, I wanted to open a discussion to the plentiful innovations Bushiroad brought to Vanguard ever since Standard came out. Some of these gameplay changes feel so incredible that I don’t want people to forget their place. Every time I play Standard and I’m reminded of these changes, I feel more optimistic for the future of this card game and the decisions this company will make in the long run.
Innovation #1: The Ride Deck
Being grade stuck was one of the worst feelings in Vanguard. I would rather be Overtriggered rather than get grade stuck in a Premium match; at least it was someone else’s deck that got me instead of my own.
One could argue that G-Assisting creates an added mechanic to deckbuilding because players have to worry about consistency, but sometimes the stars just spit at my deck and I draw nothing but triggers even when keeping an 8-11-14 normal unit ratio.
In Standard, I don’t have to worry about feeling sad right off the bat! With the ride deck, I’m guaranteed to play the game. If I draw triggers, I just guard early and make the most out of it until I ride and smack face. Entire decks have playstyles completely disregarding the rules of deckbuilding in the past like Bastion and Magnolia filling their spots with grade 3s and 2s.
Another unique challenge presents itself with this new ride deck mechanic: figuring out what to discard. I feel that this solution keeps the central identity of G-Assist alive since both mechanics are about knowing what card to cast out, but this time one player isn’t reeling from two cards being taken away.
Innovation #2: New Perfect Guards
These perfect guards are unique to Standard in that they have a discard-one cost to block any attack, but could be avoided if you have one card in hand.
Blocking with these feels so good when every card used to guard was planned and the final attack was stopped by one sentinel. Because you want to extract as much value as possible from your cards, this circumnavigation to the perfect guard’s cost comes up more times than one would think.
More guarding mechanics make Vanguard more interactive, and these sentinels make players question how they guard instead of just looking at shield values
Innovation #3: The Glorious Artwork
When my girlfriend and I watched the trailer for Overdress when it came out, she saw Magnolia and immediately hopped on the Stoicheia hype train. For me, it was the pink priest himself:
And the energy grew when his wife got introduced:
And don’t even get me started on the grade 4s:
So far the art consistently hits and each unit feels distinctly unique from each other. Magnolia feels like it’ll sick its beasts on you. Bruce looks like he really is in a Final Rush. Kairi’s dancing all over you with bouncing units that you could barely keep up with, and Gravidia is turning your battlefield to glass.
What makes artwork even more powerful is when the aesthetics go hand in hand with mechanics. The gameplay has to fit the art like a Cinderella shoe, and when it does, a whole story can take place between two players where imagination can fill the gaps. These moments are where Cardfight!! Vanguard shines the brightest, when the cards come alive in front of your eyes.
Innovation #4: Distinct Identity
While in the topic of the union between aesthetics and gameplay, I wanted to talk about Sealed Blaze Maiden, Bavsargra and her Arms.
Bavsargra utilizes a sword, shield, spear, and gun that she can equip two Arms in order to trigger different effects, like blocking attacks and forcing the opponent to take a damage. The effects are nice and thematic, like how sending the sword to the drop zone to inflict damage is like flinging the sword on their face. What makes these Arms cards so appealing is how they make your vanguard look.
Your vanguard looks massive! So imposing! The Arms cards even complete a full-art that seeps into the rear guard circles!
The ability to equip your vanguard with a variety of tools gives Bavsargra a distinct identity that several decks possess as well. Nirvana with the Overdress mechanic, Seraph Snow with Prison, Orfist with Shadow Army Tokens and World cards, the Standard format continues to brim with a creativity that isn’t just a restanding rear-guard or a reriding vanguard that people are used to seeing nowadays. And the main reason for these distinct identities comes from the revamping of a certain type of card.
Innovation #5: Orders
Back then orders were introduced in the V-Premium format as a type of spell card. They had niche uses in certain decks and were generally ignored by the player base because of their lack of impact on the game compared to other cards they could run specific to their clan.
When Standard came out, everyone was using orders.
Ghost Chase was an order that gave units power during the battle phase while bouncing cards back to the player’s hand. Reusing cards to guard during the opponent’s turn added a new layer of complexity that was not expected for a fledgling format.
The entire Seraph Snow deck revolves around Galaxy Central Prison, Galactolus, an order that sends your opponent’s cards to a ‘Prison’, an entirely new zone that old players never seen prior to Standard.
As the game grew, more types of orders: World cards, Researches, Bases, Meteors, Songs, Gems, and the previously mentioned Arms cards spiced up the game to a tremendous degree. Standard’s revamp of Order cards contributed to the distinct identity we see in Standard today. Without them, Cardfight!! Vanguard would not be the same.
Conclusion
While people focus on the times that the Standard format stumbled, it’s important to look at the holistic picture before wearing the doom-and-gloom glasses. Even in its second year there are new ride lines being announced, a new game, Cardfight!! Vanguard Dear Days being announced in Steam and the Switch, and the anime is trucking into a new arc with a different main cast.
The future looks bright for Vanguard, and I look forward to the new ideas Bushiroad has in store for us soon.
