So, Shion's grade 2 turn. He has Knight of Flash in drop and two damage, one of which is face down.

And just before that, we see five cards in Taiyou's hand.

From that, I can tell that Taiyou called one rear-guard from his hand and did not guard against Shion's grade 1 attack.

Not sure how Shion managed a counter blast already, though, considering Diotius was his vanguard and the rest of his skills on the field were GB1.

As he attacks with Albion, I see five cards in Shion's hand, so...

To be at two damage, that would mean Taiyou got a critical trigger and Shion guarded with the Knight of Flash.

So Shion would have had to manage an extra +1 that cost the counter blast, or hit a draw trigger by now.

Judging by what little I can see of the artwork on the face up damage, I think that's Refresh Healer. First damage heal wouldn't have mattered except to help Knight of Flash block the second attack.

But unless that face down card is a draw trigger, I'm not seeing how Shion already got a +1 to his hand.

I'm also not seeing how he counter blasted to begin with.

It wouldn't be another Diotius. His vanguard Diotius was shown as 7000 power, plus that skill isn't a brave skill, so that wouldn't work anyway.

Also, however he counter blasted wasn't a brave skill. First, he had too big a hand. Second, there's nothing grade 2 or less with brave that both counter blasts and isn't GB1.

Which means you'd have to look at pretty much the entire clan to find a CB1 to +1 without affecting the field.

About all I can think of would be something like Libergal, but he'd have to call it, use its skill, AND hit a draw trigger that he flipped for that skill.

Yeah, either that or Pongal, and how much do you want to bet Shion Kiba is running Pongal? XD

Unless there's a non-brave grade 2 with ACT CB1 & Retire me; draw 2.

And this is Royal Paladin, so no.

So for now, we'll pretend he used a Libergal. That means he's at two soul right now to Taiyou's one.

So next we see that Taiyou goes up to two damage via Albion's attack, and the card already there is a heal.

For his hand to be at five right now, Taiyou hasn't guarded at all. That would mean that the heal was his only damage so far. Two heal triggers wasted, unless we count the G-guardian play later.

Then we get a good look at the field. Taiyou has Perimore in front of his first vanguard and a grade 2 vanguard I'm not familiar with.

Ah, that's Kinarius.

In the same shot, Shion's at one face up damage, not two damage.

And his damage is Regius, which is fine.

And Shion's hand is at five.

If we remove the whole Libergal debacle thing, Shion's card count right now makes sense.

If we don't, he'd have had to heal this turn, and he'd have one more card in his hand, unless he somehow had to discard.

So either he's cheating already (which doesn't fit with his character) or we have dumbass animation errors, which the series has had since Aichi's heydey.

When Taiyou rides Holy Gurguit, the Gurguit card's back is the G Unit back artwork, not the regular logo. Animation error.

Gurguit's drive checks put Taiyou's hand up to six (and he's at two soul right now).

Presumably Shion didn't guard at all, so that's why he's at three after the eyecatch sequence.

When Shion strides Fides, that puts his hand down to four. However, Shion had three cards in his hand when he used Altmile's stride ability. That implies he superior called something.

But when he attacks with Knight of Twin Sword and superior calls Albion, he doesn't have a fifth rear-guard on the field. This means he should have four cards in hand.

Triple Drive!!! should put Shion's hand up to seven cards, while Taiyou's hand is now at five.

When Taiyou puts the card into the damage zone after Albion's attack lands, it's shown as the third card. Very next shot, it shows Taiyou at four damage.

During Shion's turn, Glenus is pictured in the drop zone. At the end of Shion's turn, Blue Sky Knight, Altmile is there instead.

Taiyou has four cards in his hand when he strides Law Gurguit, but he should have five.

Using Law Gurguit's skill would put his hand at four, though.

But it's pictured as three cards after his discard.

Taiyou's soul should be at three cards by the end of the turn.

Sorry, four. Forgot about Coel.

So Shion's hand was supposed to be five cards at this point, right? Hope Keeper's use made it three, the G-guardian made it two.

Sicilus made it one.

So this means Shion striding Brave Lancer emptied his hand.

Draw, Altmile's brave (back down to one card in hand), stride cost (zero), so he shouldn't have had a Scouting Owl to call.

No, Shion's hand was seven. Never mind.

Hope Keeper made it five, Laserguard and Sicilus made it three.

But that does mean he couldn't have used Altmile's brave, because he'd have four cards in his hand at the beginning of his ride phase.

Ignoring that, Altmile's brave (3 cards in hand afterward), stride cost (2), calling Scouting Owl (1). That means he'd have to discard a card for Brave Lancer's GB3, and Miya said he did it for no cost. That means Shion wasn't supposed to have any cards left in his hand.

At the end of Shion's turn, Taiyou's hand would have gone down to two cards, which is what we see. It seems like they messed up a ton with Shion and not much with Taiyou.

Also, Redon's +3k to the front row excludes himself, which didn't happen in this game.

They also forgot Suleiman's brave, but it didn't matter against Sleimy Flare.

On Taiyou's turn when he strides Sword Gurguit...

He empties his hand by calling the second Flame of Victory, and he's at two soul at this point.

Shion's hand is at four. He didn't use Suleiman's superior call skill.

We don't actually see how Shion guards against Henrinus, but we see that it left two cards in his hand.

Which meant that he emptied his hand by the end of Taiyou's turn.

We know he had Decree Altmile, two Belenus, and two more unknown cards. Those are later revealed to be Twin Sword and Albion.

The thing is he wouldn't have guarded with Altmile for obvious reasons. That meant having two cards in hand after guarding Henrinus was an error.