How Will V-Series Affect Budgetfighting?

I'm going to assume you've already become aware that Cardfight is getting a reboot, dubbed V-Series, which is implementing set rotation and supporting multiple formats. The new anime will be based off of the manga, and the new Standard Format will only give players access to cards in the new V-Series. I could ramble on, but the information regarding the reboot has been revealed by Bushi here, and other content creators have covered this news as well. Instead, I'm going to instead discuss what the reboot means for budgetfighting and this blog.

Most importantly, Budgetfight will halt all budget deck coverage until the beginning of V-Series. 

Considering a vast majority of our audience needs to invest their smaller budgets wisely, investing in G at this point is extremely questionable. Standard will be the most likely dominant format after just a few sets, and G-Era cards are an extremely poor investment. Premium isn't going to be budget friendly, and will be immensely difficult for newer players to enter.

There will no longer be any reprints for G-Era, and there'll no longer be any new strides to creep out and cheapen the older crop. It will be extremely difficult for any decently competitive budget decks to be built under these conditions. It was already hard to get your hands on a decent deck even before, but going forward it will just become more and more difficult.


Enter Standard format.

With the introduction of Standard, everything's getting revamped. New mechanics, new Trial Deck design, and even new Set Design.

With V-Series Booster Sets, we will be getting quite a similar Booster lineup as we do currently, but with a large difference: The key card rarity that has replaced GRs, Vanguard Rare, has been set to one per box. You heard me right. One per box. This makes picking up the more expensive cards in the set infinitely easier for the frugal player, as the supply of the rarity will be much greater.

Outside of rarity distribution, Sets themselves seem to have become much more streamlined. With about three-to-four clans per set, there is much more space for every clan to get necessary cards. This means that clan support will be much more readily available and distributed evenly, and along with more booster slots there comes the truth that there will be more budget alternatives available. That's massive. Really massive. More support and more budget bosses available to us? What a bargain.

Along with what seems to be vastly improved Booster Set design, we also have vastly improved Trial Decks now, confirmed to be fully functional and playable with just one copy. Four Perfect Guards, four copies of the main ace unit. The whole shebang, though I assume most will want to pick up two copies anyways for any pesky 2-3 of staples that show up. Compared to G-Trial Decks, this is a massive improvement. Hopefully V-Series Trial Decks will hit the same levels of Yu-Gi-Oh Structures and Buddyfight Trials in terms of independent viability.

The only card from the Trial Deck revealed so far is Alfred Early, and his skill is quite potent for a Trial Deck boss. If Dragonic Overlord from the Kagero Trial Deck is similar in power and mainset Grade 3s don't necessarily trump them, it seems that Trial Decks are a much more viable budget building option, more than it's ever been before. This is great. Just great.

For us, the reboot's looking awesome. Lowered deck costs, improved support distribution, and a cleanse from all of the crazy powercreep late G-Era brought us. There's plenty of other V-Series topics to cover, including Imaginary Gifts, Powerline alteration, the Caravan Decks, Trigger changes, and annual support. Each of these is almost big enough to earn their own article.

The reboot has been especially appealing to budget and nostalgia players, as well as newer players who missed out on the aesthetic feel from the original series. It's fresh, it's new, it's something that Vanguard's really needed for a long time.

Though on the downside, it looks like I'm gonna have to wait a long time for Fenrir to come back. Oh well.