Cardfight!! Vanguard - Basic Knowledge

The Grades:

The 4 Type of Grades:
The 4 type of Grades are Grade 0, Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3. To find out which grade it is, the number is in the top left corner of the card. For example, this card is a Grade 3. Regardless though, when making a deck, you need to keep in mind the balance of cards you put into it.

Grade 0 Cards:
Typically, these are your standard grade to start with as your Vanguard (or you can ride a Grade 0 over a Grade 0 card). A standard card for some clans would be the following:

• For Royal Paladins, Barkgal.
• For Kagero, Lizard Solder Conroe
• For Oracle Think Tank, Lozenge Magus
• For Nova Grappler, Battle Raizer

Other Grade 0s are typically 10000 Shields (except for Draw Triggers, those are 5000 Sheilds). They can Boost, but compared to Grade 1 Boosters, I rather go with the Grade 1 Boosters to waste more of my opponent's cards. Also, Grade 0s have Triggers. The four type of triggers are Critical, Draw, Stand, and Heal. If you attack with a Grade 0 Vanguard, you can Drive Check once.

Grade 1 Cards:

Typically, you ride with this card over a Grade 0 (or a Grade 1), or if you need a drastic Boost in power, set them to your back row Rear Guard. Typically, they have effects to give a stronger Boost to a front Rear Guard or your Vanguard, or they have effects to recycle cards from your Hand. A few Grade 1s have the ability to block the attack completely by discarding a card to your Drop Zone. The following cards have that ability to block the attack completely:

• For Royal Paladins, Flash Shield Isolde
• For Kagero, Wyvern Guard Baryi
• For Oracle Think Tank, Battle Sister Chocolat

If you attack with a Grade 1 Vanguard, you can Drive Check once.

Grade 2 Cards:

Typically, you ride with this card over a Grade 1 (or another Grade 2). These are your front attackers, because they have the ability to Intercept. Other than that, they are typically 8k-10k attackers with effects to either retire Rear Guards to Drop Zone, give more power to itself, and call out a Grade 3 (Superior Ride). If you attack with a Grade 2 Vanguard, you can drive check once.

Grade 3 Cards:

Typically, you ride with this card over a Grade 2 (or another Grade 3). These are your aces, and can drive check twice using their "Twin Drive Check" ability. Most of these effects are diverse, but typically, they involve costs like Counter Blast, Soul Blast, and Soul Charge.

How to summon a Rear Guard:

You can call Rear Guards to your Field that are equal to lower than the Grade of your Vanguard.

The Field of Play:

Drop Zone: This would be typically known as in Yu-gi-oh! terms, the "Graveyard".

Deck: Your deck would be placed in the same column as the Drop Zone. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of it, to explain better.

Field: This is your field of play.

Guard Zone: The blue circle (with the G triangles) is the Guard Zone. If you want to guard against your opponent's attacks by setting a card from your Hand to the Guard Zone, this is where you place them.

Vanguard Circle: It's the red circle up above (marked with a V). You can "ride" to your next Grade by placing a 1 grade higher card over the card as your Vanguard. I'll explain more later in a different Part.

Rear Guard Circles: It's the Green circles up above (marked with a R). You can place as many Rear Guards as you want from your Hand. However, conserving your Hand if you want to Guard against your opponent, so a bit of strategy is needed. Only the Rear Guards on the Rear Guard Circles (left and right not behind it) near the Vanguard Circle can attack your opponent, so you get a grand total of 3 attacks per turn.

Damage Zone: This is where your cards go when you do a "Damage Check", if you cannot Guard. Whoever hits 6+ damage loses the round.

Terms:

• Grade:
• Similar to Rank and Level in Yu-gi-oh!. The number of the rank determines what grade it is. For example, Grade 0 has a 0 in the top left corner.
• Vanguard:
• The main unit that you ride with. If it gets damaged, you have to do a Damage Check. When you reach 6 damage, you lose.
• Rear Guard:
• 2 Front Rear Guards
• Mainly focused on attacking your opponent. With a Grade 2 in this position, you can use it's ability "Intercept" to have it move from the Front Rear Guard circle to the Guard Zone.
• 3 Back Rear Guards
• Mainly focused on boosting your attack. With a Grade 0 or 1 in this position, you can boost your attack to attack your opponent's Rear Guards or Vanguard.
• Drive Check
• Whenever your Grade 0, Grade 1, or Grade 2 Vanguard attacks your opponent's Vanguard or Rear Guard, you can perform a Drive Check. Depending if you get a trigger or not, you can destroy your opponent's defense and retire one of his Rear Guards or damage your opponent's Vanguard.
• Whenever your Grade 3 Vanguard attacks your opponent's Vanguard or Rear Guard, you can perform a Drive Check twice (AKA Twin Drive Check). Depending if you get a trigger or not, you can destroy your opponent's defense and retire one of his Rear Guards or damage your opponent's Vanguard.
• Damage Check
• Whenever you get damaged, you can perform a Damage Check. If you get a trigger, you can power up your Vanguard or Rear Guard (if you don't want to lose your Rear Guard).
• Triggers:
• You must have 16 triggers in your deck.
• You can only have 4 Heal Triggers per deck.
• To see if it's a trigger, check the top right corner of the card. For further explanation on which card is a trigger, leave a comment.
• Types of Triggers
• Critical Trigger
• Yellow insignia
• +5000 to Vanguard or Rear Guard
• Critical +1
• Stand Trigger
• Blue insignia
• +5000 to Vanguard or Rear Guard
• One of your Rear Guards Stands (whenever you use a Rear Guard to attack, it has to "Rest", because it already attacked. However, with the Stand Trigger, you can have it "Stand" and attack again.)
• Draw Trigger
• Red insignia
• +5000 to Vanguard or Rear Guard
• Draw 1 card.
• Heal Trigger
• Green insignia
• +5000 to Vanguard or Rear Guard
• Send 1 card from your Damage Zone to your Drop Zone if you have more or equal damage than your opponent.
• Counter Blast:
• To pay for this cost, you flip over the respectful amount of Damage Cards to pay for it. For example, Counter Blast(4) = you flip over 4 cards in your Damage Zone.
• Soul Charge:
• To pay for this cost, you move over the respectful amount of card(s) from the top of your Deck to your Soul. For example, Soul Charge(1) = you move 1 card from the top of your Deck to your Soul.
• Soul Blast:
• To pay for this cost, you move over the respectful amount of card(s) from your Soul (the cards underneath your Vanguard directly) to your Drop Zone. For example, Soul Blast(5) = you move 5 cards from your Soul that's directly underneath your Vanguard to your Drop Zone.
• Limit Break:
• Limit Break is covered by how many cards are in your Damage Zone. For example, if it's Limit Break(4), you need at least 4 cards in the Damage Zone. You can have more than 4 and still use the Limit Break ability.

Before you start a Cardfight!! Vanguard battle:


Calling out a Grade 0 Vanguard:
You have to pick a Grade 0 and place it in your Vanguard Circle. For example, if you're running a Kagero build, Lizard Soldier Conroe would be your best choice, since when you ride a Grade 1 or higher Kagero card, you can call that card out to a Rear Guard Circle. For Soul Blast decks, you would use a Vanilla Grade 0 card. Any amount of possibilities can come from this. Listed below is some more examples of cards that are typically called out before a Cardfight!! Vanguard battle:

• For Royal Paladins: Barkgal (which is no longer legal after September 5th, 2011, because Bushiroad banned Barkgal from Starting Vanguard position)
• For Oracle Think Tank: Lozenge Magus
• For Nova Grappler: Battle Raizer
• For Grand Blue: Guiding Zombie

Mulligan:

After you determine who goes first, you draw your hand of 5 cards. For example, you can have a Grade 1, Grade 3, and 3 Grade 0 Triggers. When you Mulligan, you can add the 3 Grade 0 Triggers back to your Deck, and draw the same amount of cards returned. Keep in mind, that you can only do it once, and only before a Cardfight!! Vanguard battle. A typical perfect hand would be one with a Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3, and 2 other cards, because you need to ride to Grade 3 to get the Twin Drive Check ability, which grants you more cards to guard with. If you can't call out a higher Grade, during the battle, then you are at a disadvantage, because your opponent can ride up to a Grade 3 Vanguard, then it becomes a bit one-sided.

Your Turn:

"Stand and Draw" Phase: This is where you stand all of your units (except if they can't stand by a card effect) and draw 1 card.

Ride Phase: This is where you ride to your next Grade for your Vanguard, or stay the same Grade, but ride a different card. Riding means that you place a card from your Hand on top of your card in your Vanguard circle. The card that was previously shown as your Vanguard becomes part of your Soul. For example:

• If you have a Grade 0 Vanguard from your previous turn (or the start of the match), you can do the following:
• Ride to a Grade 1 Vanguard.
• Ride the same Grade 0, but a different card (or the same card).
• If you have a Grade 1 Vanguard from your previous turn, you can do the following:
• Ride to a Grade 2 Vanguard
• Ride the same Grade 1, but a different card (or the same card).
• If you have a Grade 2 Vanguard from your previous turn, you can do the following:
• Ride to a Grade 3 Vanguard
• Ride the same Grade 2, but a different card (or the same card).
• If you have a Grade 3 Vanguard from your previous turn, you can do the following:
• Ride the same Grade 3, but a different card (or the same card)

Main Phase: This is where you use all effects that can be activated during your Main Phase here. Please, keep in mind that you have to pay the cost to activate these effects. So, I recommend you remember everything you can and play strategically with your cards. Also, you are able to summon Rear Guards that are of equal grade or lower than your Vanguard's Grade. This is where you play strategically with conserving your cards, because if you don't, you'll take damage, and when you reach 6 damage (unless you are saved by a Heal Trigger), you lose.

Battle Phase: This is where you mount an offensive stance against your opponent, in hopes to inflicting damage onto your opponent. You can get up to 3 attacks, if you summon 2 front Rear Guards. If your power of your Vanguard or Rear Guard tie with your opponent's Vanguard or Rear Guard, the advantage would be to the turn player. With your Vanguard's attack, you are able to Drive Check. (Unless it's a Grade 3 Vanguard, then you are able to Twin Drive Check.) If you inflict damage to your opponent by "hitting" your opponent's Vanguard, your opponent can do a Damage Check for each damage taken. (If you are able to add a Critical to your Vanguard or Rear Guard. Some cards have abilities to do so, AND if you get a Critical Trigger off a Drive Check, which can grant you more damage if you hit their Vanguard.) 

Then, you end your turn.

Your Opponent's Turn:

During your opponent's turn, on the Battle Phase, you are able to guard. Remember, you are at a disadvantage while guarding, so when you are guarding, you add up what Guardian's Shields you set out to your Vanguard or Rear Guard's power. If it's a tie, it's a hit. Obviously, if your opponent has a higher power than your Vanguard or Rear Guard with your Guardian's Shields, it's a hit. If you have the higher power, then you successfully block.

You cannot call a Guardian that is a higher Grade as your Vanguard.