Chronodragon Nextage - Didn't see THIS coming...

At long last the cover card of Vanguard G's 4th Booster set has been spoiled after a fair bit of speculation especially after Ahsha's evolution was revealed a few days prior.  Many people were expecting Nextage to be a mesh of Chronojet Dragon's GB2 and Heart Skill for a Persona Flip and no other cost without the need for a Chronojet Heart.

We were all wrong.  Very, very wrong.

Chronodragon Nextage

[Stride] (Released when both players' vanguards are grade 3 or greater!)-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.

[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 2 (This ability is active if you have two or more face up G units in total on your (VC) or G zone):[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a face down card named "Chronodragon Nextage" from your G zone, turn it face up, choose three cards from your hand, and discard them] At the end of the battle that this unit attacked a vanguard, if you have a heart card with "Chronojet Dragon" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, put this unit into your G zone face up, choose one of your vanguards, and [Stand] it.

Whoo boy.  Where do I even begin on this one.  Bushiroad has once again pulled the "if the clan isn't topping, give it a Restander" trick that they've done with Genesis (Minerva) and more recently Murakumo (Homura Raider) with Nextage here and at first glance this guy is really, really good.  Is he the best restander in the game?  No I think that one is a toss up between DOTX and Minerva but this guy is definitely no Homura Raider and he will see play.  But to what extent?  Let's find out.

Nextage's cost is almost identical to Dragonic Descendant/Minerva as a CB1/Discard 3 except as a G-Unit you're getting 3 cards to pitch and GB2 is much easier to turn on than Limit Break 4.  Furthermore Gear Chronicle have a very solid lineup of G-Units to go into prior to this guy (namely Fate Rider Dragon, Lost Age Dragon, Upheaval Pegasus) so it's not like they won't be able to use this guy.

Now let's look into how this guy functions.  After you battle with this guy you CB1, Discard 3, Persona Flip, bounce Nextage back to the Extra Deck, take your Chronojet Dragon and stand it back up for another attack.  Come to think of it doesn't Chronojet have a GB2 skill of its own?

[AUTO](VC) Generation Break 2 (This ability is active if you have two or more face up G units in total on your (VC) or G zone):When this unit attacks a vanguard, until end of that battle, this unit gets [Power]+5000, and your opponent cannot call grade 1 or greater units from hand to (GC).

Oh.  Right.  He gets +5000 and Glory Malestrom's skill.  That's actually kind of good.  With your standard 5k Booster he hits 21k requiring a minimum 20k guard to two pass, throw a Gear Wolf behind him that's likely at 10k and you're now swinging for 26k which is the same as an unboosted Nextage.  Nextage can very well stack triggers on the booster to make it harder to guard your attack and at the worst you're still getting 2 more checks for triggers to put on your side columns.

So basically your opponent is going to have to deal with a 26000+ Triple Drive and a 16000+ Twin Drive without the use of PGs.  Nextage will likely draw those PGs out which is fine as Gear Chronicle has access to the still powerful Ragnaclock Dragon, though how many of him the deck will run is up in the air.  Ragnaclock has been the finisher for Gears for a very long time but with Nextage being a thing I think his role is going to be reduced.  Don't get me wrong his skill is very good as I believe that Guard Cancelling is one of the most powerful abilities in the game.  However the one skill that has always been better than it and has been what rules Vanguard is Restanding and Nextage gives Gear Chronicle access to this incredibly powerful skill while making the second attack one with Guard Cancelling.  On the other hand turning off Perfect Guards is only truely powerful in the later stages of the game whereas turning off guarding with 0s while also getting a crit is dangerous at any facet of the game.

In any case Nextage is a very good card and it definitely helps Gear Chronicle move in the right direction.  Will they become tier 1 just because of him?  It's quite possible though I remain skeptical due to the deck's weakness against rush decks (looking at you Sanc Guard) but hey if Murakumo can top events off the back of Homura Raider, then Gears definitely have a chance with this guy.