Vanguard (How I understand it)

Theres quite a few mechanics to Vanguard, some of it more easily understood that the rest.I figured I'd start by explaining specific things about the cards themselves before we get into phases/riding/ect.

1. Card Stats:
- The Grade (top left, 0-3. There are Grade 4's but I don't believe current Standard Play (V Series) has any just yet.)
- Shield (Relevant when guarding an attack. Lets say your opponent attacks with a 10,000 power vanguard to you 8,000. If you were to place a 10,000 shield card to your Guardian Zone, the attacked card would be treated as an 18,000 attack monster and the opponents attack would "miss." You take no damage from missed attacks. When you reach 6 damage, you lose the game. You can place multiple cards to your guardian zone from your hand to shield an attack, but they all go to your drop zone afterwards. Similar to Yugioh's Graveyard.)
- Power (relevant during the Attack Step. Attacking a Vanguard with a more powerful monster will cause your opponent to take damage unless they sufficiently guard it. Attacking a Rear Guard will result in it going to the drop zone. Depending on your clan, sometimes attacking the Vanguard is more proactive than attacking the rear guards since it will deplete your opponents hand, or they are forced to intercept attacks with specific rear guards [more on that later])
- Race (some cards have effects that affect certain races. That's all)

2. I feel like the starter deck guide has a great picture of the player mat and what goes where, so I will ignore that for now and skip to more mechanics.

3. Standard rules/starting a game
- Each player has the option to select 1 Grade 0 Starter (meaning it has to be a standard monster with a grade of 0, not a Trigger Unit, and place it in their Vanguard zone face down before the game begins. Theres no reason to not have 1 in your deck, because every deck has access to one I believe, and Im pretty sure that they mostly involve you drawing a card when you overlay/ride your FIRST unit on them. Trigger units have a specific trigger icon (Heal/Crit/Draw/ect) in the top left of the card, they cannot be used as your starting, center vanguard.
-After selecting your card, you shuffle your deck and cut it. You then decide who goes first (I believe the rule-book specifies Rock Paper Scissors, but you can roll a die as well. But you cannot roll a 20 sided die. It must be 6 sided.)
-Once it is decided, each player draws 5 cards. If you do not like your hand, you can place any ones you do not want on the BOTTOM of your deck, and draw cards equal to what you returned. Think of it like Magical Mallet from Yugioh, except better. You can do it for each round of a match, but only once each round (obviously.) You should aim to have at least 1 of each grade in your hand, except perhaps grade 0 (that depends on you, but triggers are useful only in deck unless they can perfect guard.) It is imperative to ride/overlay a vanguard each turn to get to your grade 3 as consistently as possible.
- When both players are ready, you flip your vanguard face up and begin.

4. Phases of a turn
- Each players turn starts with Standing Phase. This is similar to Magic where you just turn your rested cards to their normal position. Afterwards, you enter the draw phase and draw one card.
- Ride Phase. During the Ride Phase, you can select ONE card from your hand that is the same grade, or 1 higher and lay it on top of your starter. For this example, I will use Fullbau, the Shadow Paladin Grade 0 Starter. Fullbau has an effect that says when he is rode, you may draw 1 additional card. So if I were to play Blaster Lancer (a Shadow Paladin Grade 1) on top of him, I draw 1 additional card.
- Call Phase. This is basically the Main Phase of Yugioh. You may summon rear guards from your hand to support your vanguard. They can only be the same grade or a lower grade. You may also activate certain card effects on this phase, but it is likely you will not be able to because certain effects are paid for through counterblasts/soulblasts (more on that later.) Some effects can only be activated when a unit is a rear guard or the vanguard. Some cards can activate theirs from either position. It is important to take note of that.
- Attack Step. This is where you do the damage. You may select your vanguard or any rear guards to attack. To declare an attack, you turn the attacker horizontal to show you have attempted to attack with that unit. Rear Guards on your front row may also attack. Each attack happens 1 at a time. If you have a rear guard with BOOST (symbol on the top left of the guard) BEHIND an attacking card, you may turn it horizontally as well to add its ATTACK POWER to the attackers. This makes your attacks harder to guard because your opponent must expend more resources to prevent themselves from taking damage.
	- Drive Check. Only your VANGUARD may perform a drive check. Front Rear Guards may not. Your opponent must specify if they will guard the attack BEFORE you perform the Drive Check. During a DRIVE CHECK, you take the top card of your deck and reveal it. If it is a TRIGGER UNIT, the effect occurs first. Then you add it to your hand. If it is not a trigger unit, you still add the card to your hand. This is the main way to will add cards to your hand.
	- Afterwards, the DAMAGE STEP occurs. If your opponent chose not to guard, they will take 1 damage unless they intercept it with a unit (only units with INTERCEPT may do so. Typically Grade 2's have INTERCEPT. They basically take the attack in the place of whatever unit was going to be hit.) When taking damage, whoever takes it reveals the top card of their deck in the TRIGGER ZONE. If it is a TRIGGER UNIT, the effect occurs, then it goes to the DAMAGE ZONE. If it is not a TRIGGER UNIT, it still goes to the damage zone.

After that, you may end your turn.

5. Trigger Units.
There are 4 kinds of Trigger units. You MUST have 16 triggers in your deck, no matter what clan you play. Triggers all have a different effect associated with them being revealed from the deck during a Drive Check and a Damage Check. However, they all share 1 effect: when revealed, you choose 1 unit of yours to gain 10,000 attack during that turn only. This is important either for minimizing the damage you take, or maximizing the damage your opponent takes.
-Critical Triggers. When revealed, you can select any vanguard (including the one thats currently attacking) and increase the damage it will do by 1. In other words, if that attack connects with the opponent, they will take 2 damage instead of the usual 1. They will perform 2 Damage Checks as a result.
- Draw Trigger. When revealed, the owner draws 1 card.
- Front Trigger. All of your units in the front row gain 10,000 attack. Exclusive to certain clans.
- Heal Trigger. IF YOU HAVE MORE OR THE SAME AMOUNT OF CARDS IN YOUR DAMAGE ZONE AS YOUR OPPONENT, you may move ONE to your drop zone. It heals 1 damage. Otherwise, nothing happens besides the 10,000 boost to 1 unit.

6. Skill Icons. Very Important to read this rule.
All units have a skill icon in the top left of their card. There are 4 skills.
- Boost. Adds its power to a unit in front of it if you rest it. Typically reserved for Grade 0/1.
- Intercept. IF A UNIT has this icon, you can move it from a FRONT REAR GUARD ZONE to the GUARDIAN ZONE during your OPPONENTS Attack Step. You add their SHIELD number to the POWER of the unit that is being attacked. If it is higher than the opponent's attack, their attack misses.
- Twin Drive. Very simple, this allows the unit to drive check TWO TIMES when they swing. Very powerful. Again, only your center vanguard can perform a drive check. Triple Drive also exists, but that is reserved for very special units.
- Gift Icons. These are associated with your clan. Typically, only Grade 3's have this. When they are rode, you gain access to a GIFT specific to your clan. You should read up on this on your own time.

7. Finally, the cost icons.
As I've said, all cards have an effect and a cost that is paid to activate said effect. There are 4 types of icons.

- Counter-Blast. Fairly common. To activate an effect that required COUNTER BLASTS, you must turn a card in your DAMAGE ZONE face down. That means these can only be activated if you have taken damage. Therefore, sometimes it is proactive of you to take damage, but not took much that you cant manage in the long game. Learn your clan, learn your deck.
- Soul Blast. To activate these, you detach cards from your CENTER VANGUARD, the amount specified by the effect. Its like detaching XYZ material from a Yugioh card. The detached cards are moved to your DROP ZONE.
- Counter Charge. This is an interesting one. To activate these, your flip a face down card in your DAMAGE ZONE, back to face up position. This naturally allows you to use that card for a Counter Blast again.
- Soul Charge. No, not the banned Yugioh card. To activate these effects, you mill cards from the TOP OF YOUR DECK and attach them to your CENTER VANGUARD as material. Its almost exactly like an XYZ monster.

Effects can be activated as MANY TIMES AS POSSIBLE during a turn, as long as you can afford to keep paying the costs, or unless the card SPECIFIES that it is ONCE PER TURN or ONE CARD WITH THE SAME NAME per turn.

Special Mechanic:
G - Assist. I don't believe the starter deck manual mentions this. The more comprehensive one on the OFFICIAL WEBSITE does I believe.
During your DRAW PHASE, if you do NOT have a card in your hand that allows you to RIDE to the next level of vanguard, you may reveal your entire hand to your opponent, then look at the top 5 cards of your deck and take ONE card that will allow you to do so. If you ADD THAT CARD, you must remove two cards from your hand from the game. They can never be used again for this round. If you did not add a card because one was not revealed that you can use, you shuffle your deck and continue playing as normal. You cannot do this if you are currently at Grade 3.

Final Notes:
I believe the best way to learn this game is to play it with someone. or to watch them. For that purpose, I will include two links. One is of a fair paced game between Gold Paladins and Shadow Paladins. The other is a link to a channel that has a pretty solid intro tutorial to the game. It's a lot of fun, I hope these explanations and links help you to better understand how to play, or at least get a grasp on certain things.

Link 1: Duel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZkYF34BJqI
Link 2: Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDs223GTZPJ6gnS-AwWwpKQ