What is this game?: Cardfight!! Vanguard (hereafter CFV or just Vanguard) is a TCG made by Bushiroad. There is a tie-in anime hosted on Bushiroad's CFV YouTube channel, but unlike last decade's kid craze Yu-Gi-Oh! there is no tomfoolery with motorcycles or cards nobody actually plays and it faithfully follows the rules of the card game (if only to market the new flavor of the month booster sets).

Why should I care?: I'm approaching this assuming you are either a current or past player of a long-running TCG like Magic: The Gathering or the above mentioned YGO. Vanguard is a (relatively) very balanced game. Nothing is crazy-unbalanced and Bushiroad seems to have taken great care to give enough little love to every clan to make them all viable. You could actually buy a trial deck and stand a good chance of not getting instantly vaporized by a good deck because of how normalized strength values are in this game. There are basically no cards that can be called straight-up useless, especially because every card is a multipurpose unit (creature, monster, whatever your vernacular).

Bushiroad has also made weird but effective changes in booster set release order to help diversify the English version by releasing some sets "out of order" from their native Japan releases (making some clans playable earlier than the JP release order), and has used the opportunity to make adjustments to some card effects to be a little different from their JP counterparts (in a good way). So it's not just "mimic the Japanese." Not yet at least.

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The Starter Guide and Playbook on the official English site do a pretty fine job of explaining the rules in much more depth if you're interested. I'm just doing more of a highlight-reel sales pitch.

Decks in Vanguard are composed of 50 cards, no more and no less. 16 of these must be "trigger units"; these play into an element of chance built into the game and are the closest analogy to a straight non-creature unit. Up to 4 copies of any one card can be used.

Sample of Kagero units, grades 0 through 3
Spoiler: show



Each card has a "grade" value listed on the top left. They start at 0 and go up to 3. At the start of the game you choose a grade 0 from your deck as your starting "Vanguard"; this is your leader unit. Each turn you can "Ride" a unit of the same grade or higher by placing it over your Vanguard. You can then "Call" more units of the same grade or lower to "Rearguard" and attack. On the defending side you can use cards in your hand as "Guardians" to reduce enemy unit power temporarily (by the amount printed on the left side of the card, "Shield"). If an attack of equal power or more hits your Vanguard, you take 1 damage. You lose at 6 damage (or by decking out).

Sound pretty typical? Here's Vanguard's twists on the formula:
  • The field consists of 2 rows, 3 columns. Your front row (including your Vanguard) is the only row that can attack, but Grade 0's and 1's in the back row can Boost units in the front row by however much power they have.
  • Grade 2 front-row units can Intercept; this allows them to block from the field instead of just from your hand.
  • When your Vanguard attacks, you get to reveal the top card of your deck and add it to your hand. If it has a Trigger icon (see spoilerbox below), you can apply bonus power and extra effects to your units. Grade 3 Vanguards make 2 Drive Checks instead of 1 (Twin Drive!). An oft-unnoticed caveat of this is that you can typically know 2/3 of the cards in a player's hand at any given time.
  • Conversely, when your Vanguard takes damage you turn the top card(s) of your deck into the Damage Zone. The defending player can still apply trigger effects if they appear, making it harder for subsequent attacks that turn to deal damage.
  • The cards underneath your Vanguard when you Ride it don't just disappear; these are part of your "Soul" and can be used as a cost for various effects.
  • Likewise, damage is a resource too: some cards use Counter Blast as a cost (turn face-up damage zone cards face-down), and some effects only activate when you're at 4 or more damage (Limit Breaks).


Triggers:
Spoiler: show
Most grade 0 units are trigger units, identified by the gold area at the bottom of the card and one of four colored icons in the upper right corner. Revealing these for a Drive or Damage check awards bonus effects as long as you have at least one unit on the field of the same clan as the trigger unit:

Critical (yellow): +5000 power and +1 critical (damage dealt if you hit) until end of turn. The effects can be applied to different units.

Draw (red): +5000 power until end of turn and draw 1 card. To compensate for this, Draw Triggers only have 5000 shield instead of the usual 10000 for grade 0's.

Stand (blue): +5000 power until end of turn and stand 1 rearguard unit. The effects can be applied to different units.

Heal (green): +5000 power until end of turn and "heal" 1 damage (send it to the drop zone), provided you have equal or more damage compared to your opponent (not counting the heal trigger card itself). So if you check this on a damage trigger, you break even. Limit of 4 per deck.

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Each card belongs to one of (currently) 23 clans, analogous to colors in MTG. Typically mono-clan is the way to go for a given deck. There are a few methods in place to discourage mixing clans but some more creative builds can do so. Each clan has certain "gimmicks" backing whatever they do; you can't typically make a direct counter a clan's gimmick, you just play your own and beat them to the finish.

The first 6 clans listed all currently have an English-released Trial Deck; I'll discuss that briefly in their sections for would-be buyers. Otherwise these are not numbered in any particular order. Will show a couple cards from each clan to give you an idea of their "gimmick."

1) Royal Paladin
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Arthurian knights, wizards, and guard dogs. All with somewhat futuristic armor.
Gimmick: Reliably fill your field with lots of units from the deck and/or get bonuses for having more Royal Paladins out. Strong and stable.
Trial Deck (Blaster Blade): Does not contain a lot of useful cards for expanding your Royal Paladin endeavors.



2) Kagero
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Fire dragons, lizardmen, and dragoons / dragon worshipers.
Gimmick: Retire your opponent's rearguards and sometimes get bonuses for doing so; make your opponent work harder to fill up their field and exploit their defensive disadvantage.
Trial Deck (Dragonic Overlord): Most agree that Kagero's TD is the strongest by far. It's only a few steps shy from "good shot at tournaments" quality and is a fantastic start for Kagero fans or those who don't care for any of the other 5 trial deck clans.

Check a couple spoiler boxes up for Kagero samples.


3) Oracle Think Tank
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Japanese goddesses, Greek/Japanese guardian statue robots, and an organization of combat nuns.
Gimmick: Cheat the odds by checking the top card of your deck, sometimes able to decide whether it stays there or goes to the bottom. More extreme builds (Tsukuyomi) can stack a third to half of the deck and use extreme draw power to actually get there.
Trial Deck (Maiden Princess of the Cherry Blossoms): An ok start but cards within the deck lack synergy. Certainly better than Royals or Narukami. OTT is unfortunately a very expensive clan to build since most of their best units are double/triple rares.



4) Nova Grappler
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Underground robot wrestling ring fighters.
Gimmick: Unflip damage for extra counterblasts. Some units carry built-in Stand Trigger effects for more spam attacks.
Trial Deck (Golden Mechanical Soldier): Not a bad start. Doesn't have a lot of adventurous uses for Counterblast, but it works.



5) Gold Paladin
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Roman knight theme along with some familiar themes from both Royal Paladins and Shadow Paladins (lore reasons for this).
Gimmick: Similar to Royal Paladin's "spam the field", but usually calls from the top of the deck rather than searching the deck itself. Less consistant but sometimes better payoff.
Trial Deck (Slash of Silver Wolf): Meh. Garmore is one of the best Gold Paladin units but only one copy of him isn't. This clan is unfortunately very overhyped, overplayed, and overpriced.



6) Narukami
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Thunder dragons. Bears some similarities to Kagero (lore reasons).
Gimmick: Does a lot of the same stuff Kagero does: retire rearguards or otherwise inconvenience your opponent. Not very different at the moment.
Trial Deck (Resonance of Thunder Dragon): Probably worst alongside Royal Paladins. Has a very similar lineup (in regards to cloned card effects) to Gold Paladins trial deck but their uniques aren't special.



7) Angel Feather
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Angels, nurses, and otherwise medical themed things.
Gimmick: Can swap cards in the hand for those in the damage zone. Due to this, has a pseudo damage-unflip effect like Nova Grapplers.



8) Shadow Paladin
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Royal Paladin defectors and some Irish-themed mythology.
Gimmick: Sacrifice units to gain temporary power or to draw cards for defense. "Recycling" in a simple term.



9) Tachikaze
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Robot dinosaurs.
Gimmick: High power and reliable defense at the cost of killing your own units, some of whom can be called right back to the hand if eaten.



10) Nubatama
*Indefinitely incomplete clan
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Anthropomorphic ninjas.
Gimmick: Hand destruction if you have hand disadvantage, more power if you have hand advantage. Also only 4 cards total ever made because of the threat this gimmick causes. Usually cross-clanned with Kagero or Nova Grappler.



11) Dark Irregulars
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Succubi, demons, hellspawns, vampires... but not zombies. That's someone else's territory.
Gimmick: Send lots of cards to your soul and get huge power by doing so.



12) Pale Moon
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Evil circus performers. Well, maybe not evil.
Gimmick: Swap out units on the field for fresh ones in the soul, sometimes even during the battle phase. The soul is a revolving door for this clan.



13) Spike Brothers
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Hardcore American football players.
Gimmick: Frontliners 'roid up and get benched (temporary power boosts, shuffle back into deck). Call more players from the bench (deck) and go deep with more attacks. Hut!



14) Granblue
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Zombie pirates.
Gimmick: Send stuff to the drop zone (graveyard) on purpose, then call them from the drop zone anyways.



15) Bermuda Triangle
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Mermaid pop idols.
Gimmick: Draw cards. Bounce units from the field back to the hand, and draw more cards.



16) Megacolony
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Bugs. Some mafia themes but mostly bug-people.
Gimmick: Prevent enemy rearguards from standing. Some clans' gimmicks circumvent this, but it can still be a nuisance for the opponent.



17) Great Nature
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Professors, scientists, school theme. Oh, and everyone is an animal.
Gimmick: "Mad scientist mode"; give rearguards temporary power boosts, then kill them. Some rearguards have effects to replenish their ranks and prevent this from being a big penalty.



18) Dimensional Police
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Various Japanese sentai show inspirations (think Power Rangers or Ultraman) with a dash of Gundam homages.
Gimmick: Make the Vanguard into a huge threat and force "block or die" scenarios.



19) Neo Nectar
*Not currently in English
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Plants and plant-people.
Gimmick: Some units return to the deck to call a stronger unit, but not a lot of unique effects so far. Some cherry-picked gimmicks from other clans.


20) Murakumo
*Not currently in English
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Anthropomorphic ninjas. Again. The explanation here is that Murakumo should have been part of Nubatama but was separated for Nubatama's powerful gimmick.
Gimmick: Call temporary copies of a card and return them to the bottom of the deck at turn's end.


21) Aqua Force
*Not currently in English
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Naval combat theme with some Atlantis-like elements.
Gimmick: Gain bonuses for using units to attack in certain orders, cycle front row units for back row units in the middle of combat.


22) Genesis
*Not currently in English
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Japanese mythology theme, moreso than Oracle Think Tank
Gimmick: Build a lot of soul for use with a lot of soul blasts.


23) Etranger
*Incomplete clan, for out of universe cameos
*Not currently in English
Spoiler: show
Aesthetics: Cameo characters.
Gimmick: Doesn't really have one, being what it is.


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Useful links:

Bushiroad's official English site - Good for checking rules, which sets have been released, and which are coming soon.
http://vmundi.blogspot.com/ - Very in-depth writeups about mechanics, clan breakdowns, deck talk... etc.
Vanguard Wikia - Take comments and tips with a grain of salt, but usually better if you want to look up an individual card than Bushiroad's site.