How to Play Vanguard

Place a Grade 0 unit onto the Vanguard Circle. Search through your deck and locate a unit that has a 0 in the top left corner and place it on the Vanguard Circle face down. It is recommended to choose a grade 0 unit without a trigger icon. This card is your starting vanguard(Or First Vanguard(FV)), but you will be able to make it more powerful each turn.^[8]

• Don’t reveal your vanguard right away since it may affect your opponent’s strategy when drawing cards.

Shuffle your deck and draw 5 cards. Once you and your opponent have selected a vanguard, shuffle your deck so it’s thoroughly mixed. Place your deck in the Deck zone on the right side of your playmat before drawing 5 cards from the top. Those cards are your starting hand.^[9]

Play rock paper scissors to determine who goes first and reveal your vanguards. Whoever wins the game of rock paper scissors takes the first turn. As soon as the turn order is determined, flip over your vanguards at the same time to reveal them("Stand up, Vanguard!"). The game starts with the first player as soon as vanguards are flipped.^[10]

Turn all of your cards in horizontal position on the field vertical before drawing 1 card from your deck. If you have any cards that are horizontal, or "rested", turn them vertical to “stand” them so they can be used during your turn. This is known as the Stand Phase. Once all rested cards are standing, draw a card from the top of your deck and add it to your hand. This is known as the Draw Phase. The entire process is known as "Stand and Draw".^[11]

• You will not have to stand any cards during the first turn, but Stand Phase will still be declared.
• Some units might have an ability that triggers at the beginning of your turn. If so, you can choose to activate them if you want so long as the cost can be paid.

Play a unit from your hand on top of your vanguard. Use a card from your hand that has the same grade or a grade that’s 1 more than your vanguard, and place it on top of your current vanguard vertically. This is called the Ride Phase and the action is known as “riding”. Riding allows you to play stronger cards later during your turn and makes your vanguard more difficult to be defeated.^[12]

• Choose to activate any unit abilities that occur at the beginning of the Ride Phase or when a card rides.
• The cards underneath your vanguard are referred to as your vanguard’s soul, which can be used for Soul Blast(SB) by sending that many number of souls to the Drop Zone.
• You may choose to ride or skip the phase.

Summon units in the rear-guard circles. During your turn, choose any number of units from your hand to play on any of the rear-guard zones in the vertical position. This action is known as "calling". The units you play must have a grade equal to or less than the grade of your vanguard. If you already have units on the field, you can move or exchange them between rear-guard zones vertically, but not horizontally.^[13]

• This part is known as the Main Phase of your turn.
• You may activate any abilities that occur during the Main Phase or when a card is played on a rear-guard zone.
• If you play a unit on a rear-guard zone that already has a unit, put the unit that was there into your drop zone.

Attack your opponent’s cards by turning a front row unit horizontal. At the end of your Main Phase is your Battle Phase, where you can now declare attacks at your opponent's units. When you want to initiate a battle, turn the unit you want to use sideways so it’s horizontal in its zone. Unless stated otherwise by a skill, only front rows units may declare an attack. Choose an opponent’s unit in their front row and declare your attack so your opponent knows what you’re targeting.^[14]

• You can choose to activate any unit abilities that triggers during Battle Phase or when a card attacks.
• You cannot initiate battle during the first turn of the game.
• You can attack multiple times as long as you still have standing units in the front row.
• You may choose to end your Battle Phase early even if you can still attack, which ends your turn and passes it to your opponent.

Check for triggers if you’re attacking with your vanguard. When your vanguard attacks, reveal the top card of your deck and place it in the trigger zone. This is known as a drive check. If the revealed card has a trigger symbol in the top right corner, then apply the effects of the trigger. If it isn’t a trigger unit, then no effect is applied. After doing so, add that card into your hand.^[15]

• You may choose to activate any abilities that trigger during the drive check.
• If your vanguard has a twin drive or triple drive skill indicated below its grade, then it must perform 2 or 3 drive checks respectively. Trigger effects must be resolved first before performing the remaining drive checks.

Compare power levels between your unit and the card you attacked. Check the Power of your attacking unit and compare it with the Power of the unit you targeted. If your Power is higher or equal, the attack hits. If a rear-guard is hit, it "retires" and moves to the drop zone. If a vanguard is hit, they perform a damage check(Refer to next step). If your power is lower than your opponent’s unit, the attack doesn’t hit and the battle is over.^[16]

• You can trigger any ability that activates during battle. Such examples are when the unit attacks, the attack hits, at the end of that battle, or at the start of the damage step.

Deal damage if you attacked your opponent’s vanguard. If the attack hits your opponent’s vanguard, look at the number in the bottom center of the unit you attacked with. This is the unit's Critical used for dealing damage. Your opponent must then perform a damage check by taking that number of cards equal to the attacking unit's Critical from the top of their deck and placing it in their trigger zone one by one. If it has a trigger symbol in the top right corner, your opponent resolves the trigger and chooses which unit to receive the effects. Then, they place the card they drew in the top-most slot of their damage zone face up. Similar to drive checks, each damage check effect is resolved prior to the next damage check.^[17]

• Activate any effects that occur during a damage check.
• If the card revealed during a damage check has an AUTO effect that occurs during the damage check, then the ability is activated before the card goes in the damage zone.

Resting your attacking unit. Whenever a unit battles another unit, it rests and cannot be used again during that turn unless affected by an ability to stand again. Turn the unit sideways so it’s in the resting position.^[18]

• Rested cards can be used again after your next Stand phase.
• You can still use the ability of a resting unit as long as the cost is paid, but only during your Main Phase(Unless stated by the ability otherwise).

Continue playing until a player takes 6 damage or depletes their deck. Keep alternating turns between your opponent for the rest of the game. If either player has 6 or more damage in their damage zone, they lose. If any player ever run out of cards in their deck at any given time(And when no abilities are currently resolving), they also lose.^[19]

Place units in the guardian circle to add power to a unit that’s being attacked. During your opponent's Battle Phase and you are attacked by an opponent’s unit, you will enter the Guard Step. In this step, you can use cards from your hand to help defend the unit being attacked. Check on the left side of the card to see if it has a value. This is known as the Shield Value. To guard, play the card horizontally on the Guardian Circle and add the shield value to the power of the unit that’s being attacked. You may guard with any number of units, but the shield will last until the end of that battle. After that, any unit you played for guarding will be sent to the Drop Zone.^[20]

• You may also use any units in rear-guard circles that have the intercept skill indicated below their Grade to guard. This is usable only if the intercept unit is in your front row and is not targeted by the attack.

Rest units with skill icons to get boosts during your turn. When you attack, you can have the card with the Boost ability directly behind the attacking unit to increase their power. Look at the top left corner under the unit's Grade to see if it has a boost ability and turn the card sideways if you want to use it. To boost, rest the Boost unit before resting the attacking unit in front of it, and take the power from the unit you used to boost and add it to the power of the unit that’s attacking.^[21]

• You can only boost power during your own turn.