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Meet the First Technical Booster

Author: Ronin

Welcome to yet another Cardfight Column! For those who have been celebrating the Lunar New Year, we hope you’ve enjoyed great food and company over the last few days! Hopefully you’ve had a bountiful harvest of red packets as well! 😛

Today, we’ll be talking about some of the new cards from the upcoming Technical Booster, a brand new product line that features clan-specific support! This first release, titled The RECKLESS RAMPAGE, introduces support for Tachikaze, Nubatama and Spike Brothers along with some nifty new keyword abilities to play around with!

Devour everything in sight!

TACHIKAZE
©Vanguard G2014-2015/TV Tokyo icon:MAMEX

Let’s take a look at the Tachikaze ability, Engorge, first.

Engorge is an ability that triggers when a unit attacks, and allows the player to retire any number of their own units during that attack to put that unit into the engorged status. As can be expected, there are effects that trigger when a unit becomes engorged, such as Beam Dragon, Apatomaser’s.

Apatomaser is a support card for Emperor Dragon, Gaia Emperor that has Engorge, and can gain an ability that triggers when the unit becomes engorged. In this case, it will gain +5000 power until the end of the turn, and you get to draw a card! Not a bad tradeoff; coupled with its base 9000 power and the additional 2000 power it gains, it has a base attacking power of 16000 during that turn!

And of course, what better way to abuse the engorge effect than by using effects that trigger when a unit is sent to the drop zone? One such card is Cold Dragon, Freezernyx, which allows you to Counter Charge 1, Soul Charge 1 and give another unit +2000 power. It is a versatile card that packs a whole bunch of utility in it, as well as a welcome increase in power.

There’s one thing to take note of about engorge though; units that have already engorged cannot be put into the state again, even if they are able to attack multiple times. Nope, sorry folks, you won’t get to use Absolute Ruler, Gluttony Dogma’s effect twice (even if you managed to call more rear-guards to the field after the first time)!

Hah! That was just my afterimage!

NUBATAMA
©Vanguard G2014-2015/TV Tokyo icon:MAMEX

Next, let’s look at the Nubatama ability, Afterimage.

This ability lines up nicely with most Nubatama effects, as they usually deal with temporarily binding the opponent’s cards to decrease their defensive capabilities for the turn. The Afterimage ability triggers when these bound cards are sent back to the owner’s hand, and when you fulfil the condition of having 6 or less cards in your hand. A very important detail to note is the condition of having 6 cards in the hand – if multiple Afterimage effects trigger, but resolving some of them would cause you to go above 6 cards, then the rest will fail to meet the condition, and not be able to return to your hand. Take note and plan your tactics accordingly, to get the right cards back to your hand and defend against your opponent’s attack the next turn.

One such card is Stealth Rogue of the Mirrored Moon, Tsubakuro. While its ability sounds simple, it actually is very useful in this day and age, where cards that can apply restrictions to guarding are very rampant. Getting +5000 shield will definitely help with guarding against cards that restrict the player from using grade 0 cards as guardians. Even in a normal situation, having a 10000 shield on a grade 1 card is already a boon!

Stealth Rogue of the Wintry Wind, Kamojigusa is another card with Afterimage that has a powerful ability, and is also a Forerunner! It forces the opponent to put a card from their bind zone to their drop zone, and even lets the player Counter Charge 1 after! Because of its Afterimage ability, you can essentially reuse this card multiple times to reduce the number of cards the opponent will get back at the end of the turn.

We’re breaking through! Forward!!

SPIKE BROTHERS
©Vanguard G2014-2015/TV Tokyo icon:MAMEX

Last but certainly not least, we have the Charge ability for Spike Brothers.

When a unit with Charge enters the field via an effect, you can choose to have it become charging until the end of the turn. When a charging unit participates in battle – attacking or boosting – at the end of that battle, that unit is placed onto the bottom of the deck. These units gain additional effects when they become charging, or during the battle when they become charging, or even when they are sent back to the deck.

One particular card stands out from the fray – Devil Watch. When Devil Watch is charging, when it attacks or boosts, it gains a 3000 power boost and even lets the player Counter Charge 1 and Soul Charge 1! As you can tell, I’m a fan of these effects, as they let you extend your combos and fight longer! Spike Brothers will definitely appreciate such a card, as their combos often involve heavy use of Counterblast and Soulblast costs. As it has Charge, it will even send itself back to the deck so you don’t have to worry about a trigger unit getting stuck on the field.

Next, we have Hive Maker. Hive Maker has a minor effect that lets you search the top 5 cards of your deck for another unit with the Charge ability when it is placed on the vanguard circle, but the main point of this card is its Generation Break 1 ability. When it is sent back to the deck while it is charging, you can call a card from your hand onto an open rear-guard circle. Since that card entered the field by an effect, if it has Charge, it can become charging! Continuing your assault has never been easier.

★★★

Finally, we’d like to draw your attention to a final set of cards – Sentinels with keyword abilities!

The G series introduced Sentinels with the ability to Counter Charge 1 when they are called to the guardian circle and if there are copies of it in the drop zone. Then, we had Instill Deletor, Ender which had a clan-specific ability to Delete a vanguard at the end of the opponent’s turn, and Little Skull Witch, Nemain, which allowed the player to fix their hand. Now, there is a new type of Sentinel, with the ability to send themselves back to the player’s hand at the end of the turn.

Barrier Dragon, Styracolord, Stealth Beast, Aramatatabi and Untouchable, Milly all have an ability to send themselves back to the player’s hand when the conditions are met. These effects basically free up your Sentinels for use in battle, rather than being left in the hand until they are needed on the guardian circle.

★★★

That’s it for today’s article! What do you think of these clans and their keyword abilities? I think they’re neat additions to the game that give the clan’s identity and playstyle a name, although most of the effects are things we are all familiar with. Look forward to more of these keyword abilities in the future for other clans too!