So What's 2017 Got For Us?

Only way to face the new year is with contempt for the hype-mongers.

  

It has been collectively agreed by pretty much everyone who will listen to Twitter and the news that 2016 was a load of suck. Celebrity deaths tending and all this stupid political bollocks, the flavour depending on the side of the pond you're trapped on. Locally, my year was pretty good. I have a nice boss who lets me have free Saturdays now, and I discovered the secret on how I can save even MORE money by refusing to adhere to the system's stupid and broken card-game related business plan. So I reckon we should probably put that behind us and watch...as 2017 turns out to be the longer, shittier sequel series no-one wanted (I'm looking forward to the story arc starting in March).

I'm in a bit of a strange place myself. I'm still playing, yet now that I know the newest and to be honest, hardest to police and stop, secret to destroying my enemies, that's sort of it. The pinnacle has been reached. There is nowhere to go from here save for trying out a new kind of salt-mine deck, and even then save for some of the fiddlier ones like Seven Seas, even THAT can't really be improved upon. So here I am, pointedly not spending money first-hand and using my pauper play to annoy everyone.

However, I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that people still, god forbid, want to keep denying the obvious solution and continue to throw their own money and underpants at Bushiroad, so looking at the English releases for the next few months, what have we got?

Well, January is bringing us the Revival Collection, with the “Vol 1” they've strapped on to the title bringing some ominous signs, but at the same time it gives me a bit of hope that next time they'll print Wild Hitter and my Spike Brothers anti-Stride deck can at last be a reality. Now that the whole set has been leaked, my thoughts? Well, my big beef with quite a few of the reprints is that a lot of them are cards are things that players who were already interested in the deck will no doubt already have. Me for example, what the hell am I going to do with any more than four copies of original Dragonic Overlord the End? I don't like flags THAT much, so I'd make a pretty shit American citizen, but anyway. Some of them were good though, Alice and Reijy for example, who were for decks that only became interesting after the support that made them suck a bit less came out. Could have done with less of the Bermuda Triangle filler, which could have gone into more staple G Units so that more kids could upgrade their Trail decks a bit more easily, though. But oh dear god, this is also the one where we can at last run pure Sanctuary Guard Grade 3s and not cry at the 10k one. I expect this one to hike in popularity for a bit before people jump to the next big waste of money.

The start of February also brings us Touken Ranbu OH GOD WHY NO I'M NOT REVIEWING THESE IN FEBRUARY I WON'T so rejoice you can get G Guardians for these guys now. Don't give a shit. Next.

Mid February also gives us two new Trial Decks. Now this, this is something I can get behind. First off is the fact that these are mostly here to supplement the existing Brave and Bloom decks which give the people who picked those up something to do while giving newbies a free pass into something, but also because of how these new Trial Decks now come with 4 Perfect Guards as standard. Still annoys me that the main ace Grade 3 is still at 2 necessitating that new people buy two, but at least they'll have 4 PGs for some other deck they have lying around. Even so, everyone already know these are basically placeholders until we get the Character Boosters in March, as odds are there won't be a lot in here that you'd run in Brave and Bloom decks. Also sort of salty (on behalf of everyone else anyway) that new Altmile and new Ahsha are not in this deck and we have to wait another month before the Grade 3 lineup stops being inconsistent. It makes sense though as Bushi need to sell this shit.

The start of March brings us the TRY3 Character Booster. The amount of reprints for old and staple cards is pretty unreal, and to be honest, pretty annoying. I mean, you go and upgrade some deck exclusive Critical triggers and their old Perfect Guards to RRR rarity and make them harder for newbies to obtain. Immediately screwing over the newbies, so this basically serves as a massive wank-a-thon to everyone who were invested in these three decks from the beginning, because LOL NO god forbid you poor people Stride a bit easier. No Steam Breath for you. No dreams for you. And this is why I run the pauper deck, everyone. Okay in all seriousness, the pack does come with three new Perfect Guards who are perfectly functional and dare I say it, carrying some rewards that outweigh a Countercharge. The rest of it is obvious enough, new G Guardians, new G Units etc, so yay. All in all, you're going to be spoilt for choice with all these new toys, but at least the new toys that matter (and will probably replace other stuff that's better but oh look, shiny) is relegated to the higher rarity stuff so at least it shouldn't affect your own existing build's performance too much.

And then there's this lot. The Trinity Dragon Character Booster. At the time of writing not all spoilers have been dropped, but the obvious piece of news I ought to mention is that yes, at last we get Dimensional Robo Kaiser Grader. I mean, it's going to be hard to PULL for English players because reprint rarity, so fuck it. Aside from that, I don't really see this set making much of a splash except for a few people who will want to try these three clans out for a bit but will be dropped for more established badasses. The one I would expect to make the most difference is Dimension Police, at least for those who still have the original Laurel, because of the Grade 4 Laurel pressure. Apart from that, the lineup for these clans isn't really impressive, apart from ironing out their rather bad catchup syndrome by getting new G3 forms, G Guardians and their own GR finishers.

So all in all, the first three months are basically going to be composed of Gears, Royals, Neos and Shadows, or at least until things flatline a bit and everyone collectively realises that everything they're going to get are traps. But you just can't stop buying their shiny shit can you, you bastards.

I’m taking requests for articles if there’s something about Vanguard you need to gripe about. Email ideas at saikyocardfighter@outlook.com. Or drop a message on my Twitter account!