Are you tired of having to count over 40k power for every swing? Turns taking five or more minutes? Sick of lugging around energy, tokens, or a G-Zone? Then look no further than Break Ride format! Break Ride is a legacy format that took place in 2013/2014 of Cardfight!! Vanguard. This was before Persona Ride, Gift Markers, the G-Zone, and even Legion! Break Ride is a powered down format where there are little ways to gain card advantage or sack the opponent out. If you are interested in playing a simpler game and want an easy way to work on your basic fundamentals, the Break Ride format is the perfect place to play!
Break Rides are grade 3s that activate when you ride over them and you have 4 or more damage. They all give +10,000 power to your vanguard, and a bonus effect. These effects tended to be very game warping through getting a massive power boost, multiple attacks, guard restricts, or card advantage.
The entire format is built around the strong power bonuses of these break rides and dancing around giving the opponent 4 damage until you are ready to deal with their powerful turns. With the high power stock put on these break rides and boss units, most rearguards are really simple and are similar tools for most clans. This creates a dynamic where magic numbers, resource management, and damage control are more important than ever. If you give the opponent 4 damage too quickly, they may blow you out with their break ride. If you play down all your pieces too fast, you may run out of gas before the end of the game. Because of how little card advantage there is in the format, every single card you draw and how you use them is very important.
All of this culminates into a format where every game feels very close. There is a constant back and forth, and players can get upwards to 10 turns because of the lower power level. Being able to adapt to the situation with what you are given is what makes this format great to play!
In Break Ride there are a lot of rule changes compared to modern Vanguard that made the game play differently.
First off, there is no ride deck or G-Assist. You can get grade stuck if you miss the grade you are trying to ride. This may sound horrible at first, but because of the Limit Break mechanic, most decks can't really punish you for it immediately. If you stay stuck for multiple turns though, then it can get really bad. The general outline for grade ratios are 14 Grade 1s, 11 Grade 2s, and 8 Grade 3s. You can stray from this a bit, but this is a good guideline to start out with when building your deck. G-Assist can be an optional addition since it can make the general play experience better.
Next up is guarding. You can only guard with units that are the same or lower grade as your vanguard. Outside of Stil Vampir, this rule rarely comes up in practice. It is something to be aware of though.
Next are the [1/turn] rulings. 1/turn wasn't an actual icon on cards before, but instead cards would say "This ability cannot be used for the rest of that turn." It is functionally 1/turn but it did have a slight change from modern Vanguard. If it is an Auto ability that meets its condition for the first time, you can only activate it the first time it would trigger. This matters for cards like Tidal Assault which can restand after it attacks the vanguard once per turn. You can avoid this restriction by attacking with it at the best moment, or by attacking a rearguard first since it can only activate from hitting a vanguard. Outside of some Aqua Force cards, most cards don't functionally change all that much.
Lastly, you can mix clans in this format. This means you could play Royal Paladin and Kagero together, or even put a 3rd, 4th, and 5th clan into your deck. There are a couple of additional rules for this though. A lot of cards specify their own clans for their effects, and most break rides and boss units from this era have the "Lord" ability — these units cannot attack if you have a unit from a different clan in play. Additionally, when you check a trigger, that trigger doesn't activate unless you have a unit from the same clan in play. All three of these things made clan mixing very hard within the format, and outside of very few niche cases there won't really be much mixing.
Current mulligan and deciding who goes first rules are in effect.
Every release up to BT15: Infinite Rebirth is legal. For clarity: up to EB10: Divas' Duet, TD13: Successor of the Sacred Regalia, and PR/0128en are also legal.
Additionally, Fighter's Collection 2014 came out right before the official start of Legion era. It mostly had new Limit Break units, but it did include two new Legion units as well. Generally, Fighter's Collection 2014 is regarded as legal, but it is up to your group whether you allow the Legion units or not.
There are also a couple of promos that were legal in Japan but came to English later. These cards are also regarded as legal:
- Taping Cat
- Dimensional Robo Kaisergrader
For the banlist, there are only two cards that are banned as starting vanguards:
- Barcgal
- Lizard Soldier, Conroe
You can still play these in your deck, but you cannot start the game with them.
That is all on Break Ride format! There is also a deck repository that has decklists for a lot of the decks within the format. These aren't all the most optimal builds, but are a good start when finding a deck you want to play.
