Clans

Cardfight!!.Vanguard.full — Units from Royal Paladin, Shadow Paladin and Kagerō clans, illustrated by Asuka Shirou.

"Clans" (クラン Kuran) are the factions in Cardfight!! Vanguard, and which each card belongs to one. Likewise, each clan also belongs to a nation. In card text, the name of a clan is mentioned within "《》" in the Japanese version, and within "«»" in the English version.

Clans have some Unique Races and Shared Races in them. Unique Races found in most of the clans sometimes make up their main theme to represent themselves with their unique traits. For example, Megacolony is based exclusively on insects.

These themes may be used to form a deck, and they are usually themed around a certain ability or trait, such as paralyzing your opponent's units, locking/deleting, calling units from the drop zone, drawing cards, etc.

Originally, most cards had restrictions that prevent players from adding cards from other clans (such as Lord or requiring a vanguard from the same clan to use their effects) to discourage clan mixing, however, mixing clans was allowed and wasn't necessarily a bad idea in some cases (such as Overlord/Tri-stinger for Aqua Force decks, or Stil Vampir/Silent Tom for Oracle Think Tank decks). As the introduction of Clan Fight regulation in February 2014 (paralleling the airing of Season 4) essentially outlaws decks with two or more clan (except for some exceptional cases), such restrictions in later cards were removed as they are no longer necessary.

Originally, most clans (outside of "main" ones like Kagerō and Shadow Paladin) only had 4 cards (from grade 0 to 3) and no trigger units in the set they were introduced.

In Cardfight!! Vanguard G, top-level fighters (like Mamoru Anjou) are honored with the title of "Clan Leader".