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3D	Blaster Blade, the first incarnation of Aichi's personal “Avatar” in the anime is a fitting start to the Vanguard COTD.   Blaster Blade being a Grade 2 with a power of 9000 already makes him a respectable attacker as well as an interceptor. Paying 2 Counterblast on call may seem like a hefty price to some but when you can deal with particularly annoying Units such as Swordsman of Explosive Flames, Palamedes or Dragonic Overlord as directly as Blaster Blade does to avoid any further threat from Stage 3* Columns or other shenanigans. As a bonus, if you retire an Interceptor you also just lowered your Opponent's defense and offense in one swift blow.   My only problem with Blaster Blade is that (unlike his partial counterpart in Kagero, Berserk Dragon) he can't hit the back row which is the real sweet spot when you can retire hard to get atUnits such as any deck's precious and limited 8000 power boosters, giving a severe blow to your opponent's offense. The problem with only hitting the front row is the fact that all of the Units in front are still in line of fire and can be simply attacked off if they are becoming a nuisance.   Take the particular scenario of having a full field except for an Open Rearguard circle in front of a “Little Sage Marron”, I could choose to call Blaster Blade, Counterblast 2 and retire a Unit or I could call Swordsman of Explosive Flames and hit the same Unit for 3 Stages which now forces the Opponent to choose between two to three cards OR the Unit to send to the Drop Zone (generally speaking, the latter is what they should chose).   *Stages – A Stage is the amount of guard required against a column. Each Stage is worth 5000 Guard (e.g. 3XStages = 3x5000 = 15000 Guard). I use the term Stages because it's a much less clunky term than the alternative “Magic Number”.   All in All, I give Blaster Blade a 3/5 rating. It's a good card with no doubt in my mind and it will fight for space in many Royal Paladin decks but won't always win the spot.   Regarding ratings, my values are this 1/5 – Toilet Paper that even a Bear wouldn't use. Burn it now! 2/5 – Okay. Better options or alternatives or variations are available 3/5 – Undoubtedly good. 4/5 – Very good, questionably powerful. 5/5 – Broken. Overpowered. Awesome (Awe Inspiring). Why are you not playing this?
Elliot "Gale" Gaylord	As Aichi Sendou's most cherrished card and the posterchild for Vanguard in general, few to none can claim to be as iconic as Blaster Blade. On the fictional planet Cray in which the lore of the game takes place, Blaster Blade is right hand to the King of Knights, having been close friends for many years. As a unit, he's just about as good as they come!  Blaster Blade is a Grade 2 Royal Paladin with a respectable power of 9000 and the usual shield of 5000 plus Intercept. When placed on the Vanguard Circle, he's free to eliminate any opposing rear-guard with a Counterblast of 2. Since First Vanguards and Grade 1 units play integral roles in deciding games, this commonly deters more aggressive openings for fear of losing said cards. As a result, don't expect to be using this skill often.  It's not all about scare tactics, though! When placed on a Rear-guard Circle, Blaster Blade can retire any opposing Grade 2 or higher Rear-guard with the same Counterblast of 2. This serves the two-fold purpose of reducing enemy attacking potential and striking a minor blow to their guarding options (should the target be exactly Grade 2). It's a close to unavoidable land mine that can be sprung during any stage of the game, so those who fail to consider the consequences of what they field and when will often find themselves on the losing end of this skill.  In a deck dynamic, Blaster Blade's retire comes second only to the usual Royal Paladin tactic of hand-picking allies. Blaster Blade himself is easily accessible, however. Solitary Knight, Gancelot can be swapped from the hand into the deck for a copy of Blaster Blade, and in the coming weeks, Awakening of Twin Blades will bring two additional ways to get your hands on him - Wingal Brave and Star Call Trumpeter. He even becomes an essential component to one of the most consistent and powerful decks in the history of the game, the dreaded Majesty Lord Blaster.  Blaster Blade possesses very few weaknesses. It frequently comes up short on power against future Vanguards with static defense greater than 11000, and it can be hit by lone 9000 power units - true statements about most other Grade 2s in the game. The most trouble one can expect to run into with Blaster Blade is an opposing 10000 power ride, which renders a Wingal Brave boost ineffectual in the face of a 10000 shield. Even then, that's less defense to be spent on the much bigger and more deadly attack next turn, provided a good enough opening hand.  While Vanguard is a game where almost no cards are considered 'must play', Blaster Blade is pretty close and an easy 5/5 for its overall utility.
CrazyCat Team's YouTube Channel	Blaster Blade:  Rating: 4/5  Blaster Blade is one of the poster children of the game itself, as well as the avatar of the main character, Aichi Sendo, and I must say, this is a well-earned title.  He is a member of the Royal Paladin clan, a well-supported clan and once a very meta deck. Blaster Blade is a Grade 2 unit with 9,000 Power, a respectable level for any unit with a skill. For a cost of 2 counterblasts, when called, he can retire any Grade 2 or higher Rear Guard the opponent controls.  Royal Paladins, while they make a lot of use of their counterblasts, are still very capable of using this skill once a game, or even twice if you feel the need to do so. Most cards of similar merit, such as “Berserk Dragon” or “Gwyn the Ripper,” can only retire Grade 2 or less Rear Guards. The ability to take out key Grade 3 attackers - such as “Storm Rider Diamantes” or “Swordsman of Explosive Flames Palamedes” – that are otherwise safe from retiring skills makes Blaster Blade a great asset. And, if you happen to ride him, his skill changes from a Grade 2 or greater Rear Guard to any Rear Guard, giving you the option of killing off a troublesome booster, like “Charjgal” or “Photon Bomber Wyvern.”  More important than his skill, however, is the fact that he has “Blaster” in his name. “Wingal Brave” can search him with its skill, and boosting Blaster Blade allows Wingal’s skill to activate. “Starcall Trumpeter” can call “Blaster” units with its skill, so if you have 4 open counterblasts, you can call an extra unit AND retire one of your opponent’s units. “Solitary Knight Gancelot” can return itself to the deck from your hand to add Blaster Blade to your hand. Additionally, if you ride Gancelot and have Blaster Blade in your soul, Gancelot’s ability can be activated to give itself 5000 Power and an extra critical. Perhaps the most prominent support is “Majesty Lord Blaster,” who gains a permanent critical and 2,000 Power when Blaster Blade and “Blaster Dark” are in the soul.  While as a stand-alone card, Blaster Blade may simply be “good,” but due to the huge support network involving him, he is nothing short of a key card in a Royal Paladin deck.
David NavyCherub Lynn	Blaster Blade   The one card everyone knows, and probably the first Vanguard card most people ever came across. This was even Aichi's main "avatar" back in the day. But, as a card, is it really that amazing?   Its abilities are pretty much exactly on par with most other cards as far as cost to reward ratio goes. That is, in Vanguard it is most typical to expect a +1 for every two counterblast spent. In that sense, Blaster Blade does exactly what it should be expected to do, as far as its first ability goes, anyway (retire any rearguard for two counterblast). The main issue with this ability is the inconvenient time that it is available. No matter who went first, you have to have been hit twice within the span of a single turn to activate it, which is simply not ideal considering how little you have to spend to guard against attacks in the early game, especially if you went first. In other words, the +1 you got from Blaster Blade's effect is sort of washed by the fact that you now have to guard against more strong attacks later since you didn't earlier.   Its second ability is active any time you call Blaster Blade, but it has a weakness, too; that is, he can only retire grade 2 or higher units. That isn't the worst limitation in the world, since you snipe an attacker your opponent may or may not be able to replace, and you potentially remove 5k worth of shielding from your opponent's resources if you retire a grade 2. But, as Kagero can attest to, it is usually more effective to retire the back row since that is harder to replace, especially if there are key units hiding back there causing you headaches. Blaster Blade doesn't really get much flack for this, though, since he has the only hard retiring ability in the entire Royal Paladin lineup except Blaster Blade Spirit, who is significantly more useful in Gold Paladins anyway, and Lohengrin, who is not used for his incredibly inconsistent megablast. So, this ability is fine, but nothing amazing.   What really redeems Blaster Blade is not really anything he does himself, but his high utility when combined with other cards that seem to worship him. Llew superior rides him, which stacks up soul for Soul Saver Dragon (though this hasn't been consistent since he got restricted), Star Call Trumpeter superior calls him, and Majesty Lord Blaster's entire gimmick rides on having Blaster Blade ready to eat. Heck, Kay, Bedivere, and even Masquerade are all active and ready to swing for good numbers on your second turn just by having Blaster Blade as your vanguard. If you REALLY want to, you can even have Apocalypse Bat or Wingal boost Blaster Blade for 10k, though that isn't really recommended unless your opponent's vanguard is Yaksha or something like that (which is never).   So, the moral of the story is that Blaster Blade himself is not an amazing card, but having "Blaster" in his name makes him useful in ways unrelated to what he himself actually does.   3/5
Pokefan362	Tuesday 2/4: Blaster Blade First Pojo Card of the Day ever for Cardfight!! Vanguard and the subject couldn’t be more fitting.  Blaster Blade, as main character Sendou Aichi’s avatar, is pretty much the poster child of the franchise, much like Pikachu is to Pokemon or the Dark Magician is to Yu-Gi-Oh!  As far as the skill goes though, it’s suprisingly not all that unique or representative of what Royal Paladins do, although it is definitely still good even after all these years.  On a ride or call, you can Counterblast 2 to retire a Grade 2 or higher.  This basically ensures that Royal Paladin does not intrude upon Kagero’s territory in the latter’s unique ability to retire key boosters, but still allows them a surefire, advantage-gaining way of retiring those rearguards that would normally be attackable anyways.  Especially good targets for retirement include the 10K interceptors, Silent Tom, Swordsman of the Explosive Flames, Palamedes, and for those playing the Japanese game, Storm Rider Diamantes.  In any typical Royal Paladin deck, Blaster Blade’s skill still stands as one of the best ways to use the deck’s Counterblasts, right next to the superior call units (namely High Dog Breeder, Akane, King of Knights, Alfred, Starcall Trumpeter).  The 9K power also makes it fairly easy to hit for good numbers with Blaster Blade with a booster behind him, and allows him to tackle most Grade 2 rearguards by himself even if you can’t boost.  Put it all together, and even Royal Paladin decks that don’t run any form of Blaster Blade support can easily justify playing him.  Speaking of support though, Blaster Blade does have a bunch.  Although this is supposed to be a review of Blaster Blade, it’s difficult to evaluate it completely without examining the deck and the cards that interact with it.  At the start, there was Barcgal, who basically made Blaster Blade a guaranteed Grade 2 Superior ride.  There was also Gancelot, who could move himself back to the deck from your hand and get you a Blaster Blade directly to the hand.  But most of the Blaster Blade support, or should I say Blaster support in general, comes from the fast-upcoming BT05: Awakening of Twin Blades that will be released later in the month.  Wingal Brave will be the staple starter for almost all builds of Royal Paladin, and it can move itself to the Soul with no extra cost to search any “Blaster” unit if it boosts another “Blaster” that has hit.  Wingal Brave single-handedly solidifies Blaster Blade’s place as a 3-4 of in almost all Royal Paladin builds post-BT05.  Blaster Blade is also an integral part of any deck using Majesty Lord Blaster, as a requirement for Majesty Lord Blaster to reach full power.  Rating: 4.5/5 – Blaster Blade is merely decent standalone, but does serve as a staple to tie the different Royal Paladin decks together almost as well as Flash Shield, Iseult and Little Sage, Marron Art (TD): 4/5 Art (RRR): 3/5
Redsmas	Blaster Blade: What a strong start for the vanguard card of the day. We have the main character's iconic avatar Blaster Blade. Previously this was always used in Royal paladin decks due to a combo using the starting vanguard Barcgal. But even though that's no longer available, he can still be a solid grade 2 unit.   Being able to retire any rear-guard when you ride this unit can help destroy any any early set-up your opponent has. Its effect when you call is to a rear guard slot to get interceptors out of the way help and push for damage.    This card is one of the few that is consistently run as a 4 of card in Royal Paladin decks. I give this card a 4/5 But I give it a 3/5 on its artwork. The rarity pattern on it ruins the art.