Rulesheet Front

Rulesheet Back

Comprehensive Manual Available on the English Cardfight!! Vanguard site.
Some important notes from it here:
- You lose when you have no cards in your deck.
- When you Ride a Vanguard, that Vanguard is played in the Stand Position.
- Soul is face up, and may be paid from in any order.
- Damage is face up or face down, but all face down cards in Damage may be viewed by either player at any time.
- Face down cards in the Bind Zone may not be viewed by opponent.

[1/Turn] When any 1/Turn ability could activate, even if you do not pay the cost, is considered to have 'been activated', and so will not activate for the rest of the turn. For example, a Vanguard with an ability that reads "[1/Turn] CB1 when a Rearguard attacks, you may pay cost, if so, XXX" would only be usable on the first Rearguard attack - after that, whether or not you paid for it, it cannot happen again.

Lock
A circle with a locked card becomes a "locked circle" while that card remains locked.
Cards can be played only to (V) and (R) - locked circles do not count for either.
Cards locked are turned face-down immediately - their positioning does not matter (though when they become unlocked, they return to play Standing)
Cards, when locked/unlocked, loses all ability given to them (they're considered a new card); also, they're no longer considered Vanguard/Rearguards when locked (and thus no effects, friendly or hostile, can target them)
Rearguards in the same column can only swap if both circles are available (so if front rearguard circle is locked, that effectively locks out an attack)
At the beginning of End Phase, all locked cards of turn player immediately unlocks, causing triggers for "when this is turned face-up"... effect to go off. This is prior to all "at the beginning of end phase" and "at the end of turn". [i.e. Unlock -> "when turned face-up" abilities trigger & check timing -> "at beginning of end phase / at end of turn" abilities trigger]
Locked units, when they return to field, do not trigger "when this is placed to (V)/(R)" abilities.

Drive
Twin Drive is reworded to grant +1 Drive (which is a new attribute that is being tracked) and multiple instances of Twin Drive on the same card can only give +1 Drive total.
The Drive Step during battle phase is reworded to repeat the drive check until the number of checks equal the Drive number of the attacking vanguard.

Delete - only works on VG.
When VG is deleted, turn it face-down (just like a locked RG) - if he has a legion mate, LM is turned face-down as well.
Deleted VG is considered to be 0 power + vanilla (text-less), but keeps all other attributes of the card.
A VG is no longer deleted if either (a) it's ridden on, or (b) it is the end of the player's turn [i.e. it comes back at about the same timing as unlock].
* Deleted VG can still attack, be boosted, and does not lose Twin Drive!!
* Triggers can still be given to the VG and will work as usual (the delete ability just treats the base value of the card as 0).
* Deleted VG keeps its grade, so G2 cannot ride over a deleted G3.
* Break-ride will fail to work if it's deleted as it is text-less the moment it's ridden over.
* Deleted VG that normally would have "Restraint" can attack as it also loses "Restraint" due to being deleted.
* When a VG is turned face-up (un-deleted) at the end of the turn, no "placed in ____" effects trigger (just like a unit being unlocked does not trigger "when placed in (R)" abilities)


No more than 8 G-units.
Ride Phase now split into Ride Step and Stride Step.

G Assist
* Post Draw-Phase, if
(a) Your VG is not G3 or higher;
(b) No card in your hand is 1 grade higher than your current VG; and
(c) there are 2 or more G-units in your G Zone,
then you can perform G Assist.
How G Assist works:
(1) Reveal your full hand (to show condition (b) fulfilled)
(2) Look at 5 cards from top of your deck
(3) Choose up to 1 card among the 5 cards that is 1 grade higher than your current VG, reveal it, put it in your hand
(4a) If you put a card in your hand during (3), then remove 2 G-units and 2 cards from hand from game.
(4b) If you didn't put a card in your hand during (3), then you skip removing cards from game and advance to ride phase.

Stride rules:
If both player's VG are G3 or higher, then during Stride step, you may discard cards from hand with sum of the grades discarded at least 3 or more to choose a face-down G unit in the G Zone and Stride.
(It behaves like an ability that says "[Auto] [G Zone]: [Discard cards from your hand so sum of the grades of the discarded cards is 3 or higher] At the start of your Stride Step, if both player's Vanguard is Grade 3 or higher and this card is face-down, you may pay cost. If so, Stride with this card, and at the end of the turn, return this card to G Zone face-up.")
You display the card being strode stacking on top, but splayed slightly so the previous VG's name and power are showing). The previous VG is called "Hearts" while being strode and is not a part of the soul (so you can't soulblast it out).
The Striding G unit gains the printed power and name of the previous VG.
The G unit has triple drive.
At the end of the turn, the G unit returns to G Zone face-up.

Stride interaction with existing techs:
> Can Stride immediately upon riding to G3.
> Can Stride over a Deleted VG. In this case, the deleted VG is also turned face-up.
> If striding over Legioned card, both parts of the previous Legion become Hearts. The Striding G unit only gains power and name from 1 card of the Legion chosen at time of striding.
> Striding over Breakride does nothing since it's not a ride.
> Can special-ride over the Striding unit. In this case, return the Striding G unit face-up to G Zone, and VG that was/were Hearts become Soul of the Special-riding unit.
> A Striding VG is only 1 card. This is the case even if Striding over Legioned VG.
> Any "on play" / "when placed" skill on the Hearts do not function when it resumes being VG at the turn.
> If Breakride and Stride on the same turn, all benefit of the Breakride is lost (the Striding unit gains neither the power nor the ability granted by Breakride).
> Legion status is temporarily lost when Striding. (So Striding VG would need a Legion effect of its own to be "in Legion")
> If Hearts were Legioned, they resume being Legioned when they resume being VG.
> Max 4 copies of each name even for G unit.

Harmony:
When a unit with Harmony ability is played to a column with other cards OR when a unit is played to a column with another card that has Harmony ability, both units gain the Harmony status for the turn.
The Harmony status for both units disappears when either (1) the end of the turn comes, or (2) when either unit leaves the field.


Shinken Hissatsu:
A keyword denoting Limit Break 3, but some instances of this ability only work on (R), some only on (V), and some on both.


MVP: It's a special keyword: Every turn, you are only allowed to pay for the cost of 1 MVP ability, and only once. (i.e. All MVP abilities have an implied 1/turn, and paying for any of them turns off all other MVP abilities for the turn as well)

- Triggers (such as Critical) do not need to have both bonuses given to the same Unit.


Tournament Rules
The following are rule / card changes that take effect during official tournaments in the Japanese Format. (see Fighter's Rule for original text)
- Neither BT01/003 Barcgal nor BT01/016 Lizard Soldier, Conroe may be chosen for your starting Vanguard.
- Many cards (known as Flash Shields or Perfect / Null Guards) now have the keyword 'Sentinel'. You may not have more than 4 cards total with 'Sentinel' in your Deck.
- Many Cards now have the keyword 'Lord'. This means 'if any of your VG or RG do not share a clan with this unit, this unit may not attack'. - Many Cards now have the keyword 'Pioneer'. This means 'you ride a unit that shares a clan name with this unit on top of this unit, you may call this unit to R'. - You may have a maximum of two copies total of the following list of cards in your deck:

Cat Butler


Errata
- TD02/014 and TD02/015 incorrectly have each others' numbers in the first printing.