A Guide to Vanguard Fan Terminology

In starting to write articles it's become clear that there are quite a few terms which vanguard players will often throw around, but which without context are probably completely alien to new players. Thus I have created the following - a glossary of unofficial terms which are often used by players. There may also be a few terms which aren't widely used, but which help simplify the explanation of other terms, and so are included for completeness.

This is a living document, so as new terms are generated or get pointed out to me they'll be added (so if I've missed something let me know so I add it).

Archetype/Subclan: A set of cards which have a common word or phrase in their card names, which card effects check for and interact with. Most prominent in Seasons 3 and 4, but the very first ones go back to Season 1. The two terms are often used interchangeably, although some players may use them as different terms to distinguish between groups which have full deck support and others with only key cards, where support cards do not share the key phrase.

Beater/Beatstick: A unit which has a high power, or an effect which gains power, and which is used aggressively to attack the opponent. Literally, a 'stick' to beat at the opponent with.

Bounce: Returning a unit from the field to the hand. The defining mechanic of Bermuda Triangle, who do all sorts of fun things by returning their units. A very small number of cards from other clans, mostly Oracle Think Tank, also have skills to bounce their rear-guards.

Vanguard's lack of call costs and the use of the hand for defence means that returning opponent's rear-guards would be (at least for now) a disadvantage to the player who did so. 

Clone(1): A member of a series of cards spread amongst several clans and/or subclans, all of which share the same grade, base power, and a standard effect. This effect will have the same costs and conditions, with the exception of specific clan or sub-clan requirements, and will either have an identical effect or an effect based around that clan's theme. A few of note are below:

• Amber Clone: Grade 2 units with Generation Break 1 skills which activate when the unit is boosted and attacking a vanguard from the rear-guard. These skills cost 1 Counter blast and generally gain you one card's worth of advantage. Named for Steam Fighter, Amber, one of the first to be released, and the first Gear Chronicle card which could legitimately seen to be a first card in a clone cycle.
• Bedivere/Burning Horn Clone: A 9000 power Grade 2 unit which gains 3000 power on attack if the vanguard has a certain key phrase in it's name. Named for either Knight of Loyalty, Bedivere or Burning Horn Dragon, as both were released together.
• Benizel/Glimmer Breath Clone:  A 9000 power Grade 2 unit with an on-call Generation Break 1 skill which for a cost of Counter blast 1 and Soul blast 1, give the unit 2000 power for the turn and a clan-specific skill if the vanguard is Grade 3 or greater and has a specific name element of the clan's 'Stride Break' unit. To date, all of these units have a very similar effect to the clan's Amber Clone. Named for either Knight of Refinement, Benizel or Glimmer Breath Dragon.
• Kay Clone: A 7000 power Grade 1 unit which gains 3000 power on attack if the vanguard has a certain key phrase in it's name. Named for Knight of Friendship, Kay. Where a distinction is made between cards in this group which are part of the subclan they gain power with, those cards are sometimes identified as Ruth Clones, from Water Lily Musketeer, Ruth.
• Margal Clone: A draw trigger with a skill to move it to the soul to give a card from the same clan 3000 power for the turn. Named for Margal, the first card with this skill. Sometimes used more generally, to also include critical and stand triggers with the same skill.
• Miranda Clone: A 9000 power Grade 2 unit which gains 2000 when it attacks if a specific named character (that is, the same individual within the game world, who may have multiple cards) is vanguard, as well as a second skill which works with the same named character and supports that character's skill. Named for Banding Jewel Knight, Miranda.

Clone (2): Calling a unit with the same name by the effects of certain Neo Nectar and Murakumo units. The latter are more frequently termed "shadow clones" due to the call effects removing the units from the field after the turn.

Glory Skill: An ability which prevents the used of Grade 1 or higher units in the hand to guard. The name comes from Blue Storm Supreme Dragon, Glory Maelstrom, the first card to have such an effect.

Mill: Sending cards from the top of the deck directly to the drop zone. The name comes from the Magic: The Gathering card Millstone, the first card to have such an effect. Unlike other collectible card games, Vanguard lacks a true deck destruction strategy, and thus the term is used exclusively to refer to Granblue effects which send cards, usually as part of an effect's cost, to help set up the drop zone for their revival skills.

Paralyse/Stun: Shorthand for the Megacolony clan's signature skill to prevent units standing in the stand phase. Paralyse is the term used from Season 4 of the Cardfight Vanguard anime - as such it's the official term, although the term was introduced quite late, so older players may still use whatever they were calling the effect previously.

Rush: A strategy which involved calling several units early in the game in order to force the opponent to either guard heavily, reducing their hand, or take damage early, reducing the damage the rushing player needs to do to win the game. Effective rush builds generally either call additional units, have ways to generate more attacks, or have more lower-grade units to ensure the cards in hand can be played sooner.

(Shield) Stage: A measure of how much shield is needed to guard against an attack. All units with shield have a value in multiples of 5000 power, making this the minimum shield value. Thus 1 Stage = 5000 power. As a tie between attack and defence power results in the attack hitting, an attack with the same value as the target would need to be blocked by a minimum of 1 stage of shield, and each addition full 5000 power in the attack would take an additional stage.

Stride Break/Heart Break: Grade 3 units with a skill which activates from the vanguard circle when stride is performed. Usually refers specifically to units with a GB2 skill and a skill which activates when any G unit is stridden, most of which feature in the card lores for the first block of the G series sets.




Stride Enabler: A clone series of Grade 1 units, all of which gain 2 grades whilst in hand when you would stride, and when called from hand allow you to search out a specific 'Stride Break' Grade 3 unit. These cards are often used in decks which don't feature their matching Grade 3 simply to act as extra cards to use for stride.

Stride Fodder: Extra grade 3's, which are generally discarded for the cost of stride. In particular refers to cards obtained specifically through card effects as opposed to drawing or drive checking them by chance. Also sometimes used to refer to Stride Enablers.

Tom Skill: An ability which prevents the use of Grade 0 units in the hand to guard. The name comes from Silent Tom, the first card to have this skill.

Vanilla: A unit without an effect. Derived from vanilla ice cream, which is generally seen as the 'plain' variety.