"Building a Vanguard deck is easier than it looks. In this article we go through some of the key considerations you should have when building your own Vanguard Deck."
Grade Distribution
At the heart of very vanguard deck is your Grade Distribution, which is how many cards do you have of each grade. Because of the way the game is designed, any build will always follow a pyramidal shape. A typical build is 17 – 13 – 12 – 8, which refers to how many cards do you have of each Grade 0, Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3. This should suit most decks in the sense that you will avoid misgrading while having a balanced amount of cards for both offense and defense.
You can only have up to a number of 4 of the same cards.
You must put in 16 Trigger Units, no more and no less.
Victory Conditions
You win by achieving either of these conditions:
Inflict 6 points of damage to the Opponent's Vanguard.
Your opponent runs out of cards to draw during his/her draw phase.
Starting a Game
Game Preparation
Place a Grade 0 unit face-down on the Vanguard Circle. That card is the First Vanguard.
Both players draw 5 cards.
Mulligan
If the player doesn't like their hand, they can reshuffle any number of unwanted cards
back to the deck and redraw till they get a total of 5 cards again in their hand.
You can only mulligan once per game.
Stand Up Vanguard!!
Declare "Stand Up!!" and reveal your vanguard to start the game.
Going First
The person who chose to start off with the first turn cannot declare attack
during that turn.
Phase Flow
Stand Phase
Any of your Rested (landscape) Units switch to Stand (portrait) position.
Draw Phase
Draw 1 card from your Deck.
Ride Phase
You can place over your Vanguard with a unit that's either the same Grade or higher by 1 Grade.
You can only do this once per turn, unless you have unit(s) with ability that allow you to do addition ride(s).
Main Phase
Call
Place a Unit with a Grade either the same as the Vanguard's or lower in the Rear Area.
You can Call as many times as you want in 1 turn.
Unit Ability
You can activate any ability that allows you to do so in the main phase. Some abilities may
allow you to activate them in the battle phase.
Move
You can move the Rear Guard back and forward (You cannot move your Rear Guards to the left or right).
This applies to the Rear Guard Circles on the left and right. But if a Unit is on the Circle behind the Vanguard,
it cannot move at all.
Battle Phase
Attack
Put your Unit to Rest to initiate an attack.
Then declare the target of your attack that's on the Front Row of the Opponent's.
Guardian Call
When being attacked, you can Call a Guardian to protect the Unit with its Shield effect.
You can call as many Guardians in 1 turn as you can.
But when the battle ends, all Guardians retire and the Unit that was attacked has its Power
reverted to normal.
Drive Check
When the attacking Unit is a Vanguard, you perform a Drive Check.
Reveal the top card of your Deck. If it is a Trigger Unit, and is of the same Clan as your Vanguard
or a Rear Guard on the field, its Trigger effect activates. Afterward, that card is sent to the Hand.
Battle Outcome
When comparing Power, if the Attacking Unit's Power is equal to or higher than its target, the attack is a success.
If the target was a Rear Guard, it retires and is sent to the Drop Zone.
If the target was a Vanguard, you calculate the damage to the Opponent by counting its Critical value.
The player receiving the damage, sends that same amount of cards from their Deck to their Damage Zone.
If a Trigger Card was revealed during the damage and is of the same Clan as your Vanguard or a Rear Guard on the field, its Trigger effect activates and is then sent to the Damage Zone.
There is no demerit to when it comes to failing an attack.
End of Attack Phase
Guardians that were called are moved to the Drop Zone.
If there are Units on the Front Row that can still attack, you can attack again with them.
Declare it and repeat the process.
End Phase
Declare the end of your Turn before switching to the Opponent's turn.
Paying Cost
Cost is depicted by an icon of two rectangles (white and black) with an arrow point from the white to the black
followed by a number. You pay costs by taking the same amount as the number indicated next to the icon,
of cards from the top of the Damage Zone, and by flipping them face down.
Types of Costs
Note: (X) refers to the number of cards
Counterblast (X)
To activate a Counter Blast ability, flip face-up cards in your Damage Zone face down equal to the number X.
Soulcharge
Place the top card of your deck at the bottom of the stack of cards underneath your Vanguard.
Soulblast (X)
Move cards from stack of cards underneath your Vanguard equal to the number X to the Drop Zone,
Discard (X)
Discard the number (X) from your hand to the Drop Zone.
Rest
Rest the unit.
Icon Explanation
Note:
For trigger effect to activate, you must have at least 1 unit that is of the same clan on the field as the unit that has the trigger effect.
Trigger effect cannot be activated from hand.
If a Trigger Icon is absent, no effect is activated.
You must choose which unit of yours to receive the trigger boost before checking for the next trigger (in multiple trigger checks, e.g. Twin Drive!! effect).
Trigger effects are compulsory to activate.
Trigger Effects
Draw (Red 引 icon)
When revealed during a Drive Check or Damage Check, select 1 of your own Units and it gains +5000
Power, and draw 1 card.
Critical (Yellow star icon)
When revealed during a Drive Check or Damage Check, select 1 of your own Units and it gains +5000
Power, and select 1 of your own again and it gains +1 Critical.
Power and Critical gains may be applied to different units.
Heal (Green 治 icon)
When revealed during a Drive Check or Damage Check, select 1 of your own Units and it gains +5000.
When the damage you've received is equal or more than the Opponent's, you can heal 1 point of damage
by replacing this card with one of the cards in the Damage Zone. The replaced card will go to the Drop Zone.
(You cannot put more than 4 Heal Triggers in a deck.)
Stand (Blue 醒 icon)
When revealed during a Drive Check or Damage Check, select 1 of your own Units and it gains +5000.
Select 1 Rear Guard that is in Rest and Stand it.
Icon Effects
Boost (3 arrows point upwards)
Grade 0 and 1 Units have this ability.
When declaring an attack with this Unit behind the attack, put this Unit to Rest and add its power to
the attacker.
Intercept (tick-like symbol)
Grade 2 Units have this ability.
When other Units are being attacked, this Unit can move to the Guardian Zone and become its Guardian.
Afterward it's treated as if it was Called as a Guardian.
Twin Drive!! (2 intersecting arrows)
Grade 3 Units have this ability.
As a Vanguard, it's able to Drive Check twice.
Unit Ability
[永] = [Continuous]
This ability will activate during either player's turn (unless it says otherwise) as long as the unit is on the field.
You cannot choose not to activate this ability, unless otherwise stated.
[起] = [Startup]
This ability can only be activated during your main phase.
You can choose to activate or not activate this ability.
You may activate this ability multiple times in your main phase, unless otherwise stated.
[自] = [Auto]
This is a compulsory ability and will activate as long as the condition(s) are met.
However, You may choose to activate the effect or not,
only if 「～してもよい」(you may~) is written in the text.
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