I'll only be covering the cards released in the English game during 2015. This means no FC2015 winter or G-BT05 cards, and to be fair no Harmonics Messiah either, since that was released in 2014.
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| I think we do now. |
There's quite a few 'guard or die' G units - almost everything which can gain a critical, mostly - but although Stun Beetle is something you shouldn't ever let through without a superior ride on standby I have to give this award to Dark Dragon, Phantom Blaster "Diablo", for not only gaining a critical, but for also packing a complete guard prevention which requires the opponent to retire two of their own rear-guards to even attempt to stop the attack. For forcing opponents to commit more than they might want just to live, and for making several clans almost unworkable, this award goes to you. Oh, and since Ren is finally showing up in G with a role beyond "look at this guy and cheer, audience", he's getting more support. Oh boy.
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| You'll need to do more than that. |
I suppose winning this award would put you in line for being worst G unit of 2015, but this award is for the card which has the least reason to exist, and it's for a truly stunning case of redundancy the award goes to Ardor Dragon Master, Amanda. The difference between Amanda and Clifford is that Amanda gives you a blind soul charge whilst Clifford keeps the unit out. Amanda isn't even all that bad a card, but for being a second on-hit to call from soul with 2000 power she gets this award. Maybe if you'd been on-stride, or on attack, or given a larger power boost, or, well, anything you wouldn't be here.
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| Shame they're in different clans. |
A lot of G units can be abused in Extreme Fight - the threat of combining units from different clans only becomes more threatening when you add in G units which have some of the strongest effects in the game - if Silent Tom with Stil Vampir is a threat, how much more dangerous is it if you have Ragnaclock Dragon sat on the vanguard circle? However the award is going to Avatar of Heroic Spirits, Vishnu because whilst he's functional but not meta-shifting for Narukami nobles, when thrown into Genesis, a clan loaded up with them, he becomes a massive threat capable of insanely cheap field wipes with a critical, and even functions when the host deck is struggling to generate the soul it needs for it's own skills.
Cubic Crab Award for most blatent enabling of cancerous cards.
Now it could be argued that Sanctuary Guard Regalie took a Swordmy who was just starting to settle down and hyped it back up to stupid tier, but ultimately I have to give this award to the entire Dimension Police clan, for their tireless work in making sure Commander Laurel will never be balanced again. Nice work guys.
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| Err, you're not in Kagero mate. |
Whilst many on-hit units have been super-ceded by more useful utility strides, or the use of Blizza for faster GB2 access, a few have stayed in use due to a lack of better options. As more sets come out and bring more cards along, this list gets smaller, but it's still there. I'm giving the award to Lightning Dragon Knight, Zorras, because we know what it's getting in early 2016, and none of those G units do anything to make Zorras less essential to any deck that uses it.
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| One where you're useful? |
Now I could take the dull and dry approach and calculate which unit has the highest cost with everything standardised, but I'd rather not bother and just look at the card with the most striking cost. Therefore I'm giving it to Interdimensional Dragon, Mystery-flare Dragon, for a counter blast 4 - a level of flipping damage which has only been seen twice before in this game - for a skill which requires a very specific set of events to happen. Obviously if you can pull it off it can be a game changer, but if it wasn't so good the cost would get it laughed out of the room even harder than it is already.
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| She's really expensive. Just like real girls. |
This was a tricky one. A few of the GR cards, especially the ones which require two copies to work, have reached some almost unheard of prices for this game, but one card has stood out above all the others, reaching prices beyond any other card ever printed. Yes, for having the sheer guts to have an SP version of a GR with a persona cost, School Etoile, Olyvia takes this award. Let us hope that 2016 doesn't give us anything this expensive again, but there'll be another Bermuda set so that's not very likely.
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| So then a heavy dream is...a blizzard? |
Many G units with heart restrictions don't need the entire deck to share that name - indeed, for some it would be literally impossible since there's only a small number of cards with that name. However, Cosmetic Snowfall, Shirayuki takes it one step further and doesn't even require you have a Shirayuki heart at all, just giving you a bonus in the form of a one-for-one swap if you do. Admittedly this is somewhat fair given that there is only one Shirayuki to be a heart, but the same can be said of half of the cards in the upcoming FC2015 Winter and it hasn't affected any of them.
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| By Justice, he means superior calls. |
Most G units have had criticism, even the good ones. In fact those are some of the most criticised, although more for being 'broken'. However, from the series of cards which flip another copy of themselves as a cost, and which were intended to be the first 'ace' strides of each clan's G build, none has been regarded as less useful than Golden Dragon, Spearcross Dragon. In a clan built almost entirely around calling from the top of the deck, more of the same was not really what any build needed, and the card has, as an ace, been overshadowed by Scourge Point Dragon. In fact Bushiroad resorted to cheating to show it off in the anime, which shows how unimpressive it is (or maybe that the anime script writers don't read the cards properly). Maybe with more cards that clear the field it might see more use, but until then enjoy your meaningless accolade Spearcross.
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| She didn't stop, so soon she'll bloom |
I've mentioned it before, but whilst Dream-Spinning Ranunculus, Ahsha is fairly useful within her own build mostly as recovery from control or a first stride, she becomes the go-to stride for most other builds where cloning wasn't as abundant and setting up the homogeneous field needed for Jingle Flower wasn't as easy. 2016 is offering us a new Maiden G unit which may negate this slightly, and Ahsha is gaining another stride which may support Ranunculus directly, but Dream-Spinning Ahsha is likely to remain the envoy spreading the word of Ranunculus to the rest of Neo Nectar. Thus she gets this special award for being stupidly amazing in every deck which doesn't focus on her own grade 3 form.
Ego's Choice Award: My Stride of the Year
Once again, I could go look at all the tops, find out what was found at most copies in most top decks, but since I'm lazy and any such analysis would favour popular decks which got earlier stride support I'm just going to give it to a card that has achieved a lot, both for it's deck and for me personally.
Carapace Mutant Deity, Machining Destroyer showed us what even minor clans could do with the right support. Giving Machinings a reliable, low-cost vanguard stun took Megacolony from something that might get the odd win to being a deck you needed to keep your wits about you to fight off. Whilst the deck around it wasn't quite strong enough at the time, it only took a handful of cards to make it one of the most frustrating decks to play against. On a personal note, Machinging Megacolony, with Destroyer as MVP, took me the full 9 rounds at my regionals, losing only to bad hands against decks with ways to avoid destroyer.
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| Even criminals understand the power of friendship. |
And so, we reach the end of another year. A lot's happened both in Vanguard and the rest of the world, so here's to 2016. Ride well, trigger hard, and may all your Guards be Perfect.
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