Monday, January 29, 2024

Archetype Archive: Oni Assassins

 


Oni Assassins have a unique ability called Ambush... at least until the Conan set came out. Ambush states that when the card with Ambush is put facedown from the soul of a card on the field into the drop zone, you may call the card to the field by paying its call cost. This ambush ability can even activate during the opponent's turn, making Oni Assassins a pretty fast and active deck.

This ability may sound extremely specific but there's multiple ways, even outside of Oni Assassin cards, to get cards facedown on the field. The three most common being Art of Explosive Hades Fall, Secret Sword, Lethal Formation and Shinobi Scrolls. There is also Super Lethal Formation but the 1 gauge cost just to give all Ninjas 1000 power is completely pointless for Oni Assassins so people tend to stick with normal Secret Sword, Lethal Formation.

Now, before I go into talking about the cards themselves, I want to talk about some terms and meta concepts when it comes to thinking about Oni Assassin cards and their ambush (monster) or ambush-like (spells) abilities. This should hopefully get you in the right mindset while thinking how best to set up and use ambush and ambush-like abilities.

Also, quick side note, instead of saying "ambush" for monsters and "ambush-like" for spells, I'm just going to say ambush for all instances of card effects that trigger from going from being facedown souls to being sent to the drop zone.

Terms:

Example of a "Setter" card
Oni Assassin cards come in, at the very least, one of three varieties. Sometimes they may be 2 or all 3. I made up these terms so others may have their own terms. The cards can be a setter, an activator and/or a catalyst. Lets explain what these three mean:

Setter - A card that sets either itself or other cards facedown into the soul of another card. Thus, it "sets up" a card to use ambush. A simple example of a setter card is House of Assassins, Oni Convoy.

Activator - A card that has an ambush ability. Because it "activates". An example of an activator card is any card with Ambush. A simple example would be Red Fiend, Kid Kaneguma.

Catalyst - A card that causes facedown soul cards to be sent to the drop. They are a "catalyst" for a "activator" (i.e Ambush) to occur. A simple example would be Oni Castle of Contraptions' counter ability.

A couple other terms used:

Wiff - When an ambush ability activates but the ability doesn't resolve to completion. Usually either due to not enough resources (gauge/life/hand cards) to call the card or because the player just doesn't want to resolve the ambush effect due to other in-game reasons and situations. 

Ambush Sequence - The order the Oni Assassin player decides to resolve their ambush effects. This term is mainly used to say whether the sequence of ambush effects was a good or bad sequence.

Pool - The collection of pending Ambush effects and on-call effects waiting to be activated and resolved.

OA Player - Short for Oni Assassin player because... I say it alot...

Next, let's have a meta discussion.

Meta:

1. When multiple facedown cards with ambush abilities go to the drop, they all trigger at once. In this instance, the OA player gets to choose what order the effects activate. Also, keep in mind that when the player chooses which ambush effect he wants to activate, the opponent can respond to each Ambush effect when the OA player calls out that they're activating a card's ambush effect. 

So, for example, if Under the Table and Oni Boss, Kid Ibuki are under the same card and both of them get send to the drop while facedown at the same time, the opponent can respond with counter cards of their own when Under the Table activates from drop and then again when Oni Boss, Kid Ibuki activates from drop. 

2. Whether the OA player decides to actually follow through with the ambush effect or not, the opponent may respond to the ambush effect activating. Thus, allowing the opponent to play counter spells without any fear of their card being nullified because the ambush activation takes up the OA player's slot in the chain. Remember, the farthest a chain can go in Buddyfight is 2 before they must be resolved.

3. All monsters are inherently catalyst cards because calling over or size ruling out cards with face down souls can activate more ambush effects.

4. If you already have a pool of ambush effects waiting to activate and more ambush cards are sent to the drop, they are added to the pool and can be decided to be activated sooner than the older ambush effects.

For example, if Fiend of Gaze, Ayo, Lady Oni, Uji Bridge Princess and Lesser Fiend, Amanojaku all go to the drop from the soul of a card at the same time, all 3 card's ambushes activate at the same time. You decide to play Ayo first, use his ability to put Under the Table underneath himself. Then, you call Amanojaku over Ayo, sending Under the Table to the ambush pool. Then, you may use Under the Table before resolving Uji Bridge Princess even though Uji Bridge Princess was in the pool first. 

5. Similar to point 4, on call effects do NOT have to be used right after the monster was summoned to the field. The on call effects also go into the pool to be played when the OA player determines they want to. 

For example, if Fiend of Gaze, Ayo and Oni Boss, Kid Ibuki are sent to the drop from a facedown soul at the same time, you may call Fiend of Gaze, Ayo first, his on call goes into the pool then, you may call Oni Boss, Kid Ibuki, sending Ayo back to the drop, then, resolve Ayo's on call ability to put a face down card into Kid Ibuki's soul (then finish off with Kid Ibuki's on call effect).

6. Unlike normal calling monsters where the counter timing is after their call cost has already been paid, when a monster is summoned via ambush, the only counter timing is when ambush activates. If the opponent lets that counter timing go by, the OA player can safely pay their call cost and call their monster. There is no such thing as a counter timing at ambush activation AND counter timing after paying the call cost for ambush. 

Ok! Now that that's all squared away, lets get to the Archetype Archive!

Buddyfight X

The Dark Lord's Rebirth

We're skipping right by the first 3 seasons because Oni Assassins came out in The Dark Lord's Rebirth. The first set of the X season. In the anime, Sakate Onigashira plays the deck with his buddy, Oni Boss, Kid Ibuki.

Stats wise, most Oni Assassin monsters have high attack, an average critical of 1-2 and almost always 1000 defense. They aren't usually meant to last too long on the field. Their spells have the attribute Assassination instead of Oni Assassin. Along with normal effects that a spell would have, many can have ambush effects when played from a facedown soul. Usually, the power of the normal effect and the ambush effect are pretty on-par with each other and it's more just situational on which the player wants to use.

Just like in every set, we have the winners and losers of the set. So to keep this more cohesive, let's list the more bad/trash Oni Assassin cards of the set and then we'll talk about the good card's and their play style:

- Dark Arms, Steel-slicing Strings

The reason why these cards are considered bad/trash is because of either 1 of 3 reasons:
1. Other cards do their effects better or are similar enough with better results
2. Their on-call ambush effects are weak/too niche
3. You are losing cards in hand to set facedown in their soul without recouping the loss in some other equal or meaningful way.

Generally speaking, Oni Assassins that get facedown souls from either deck or drop are better than cards that get facedown souls from hand. There are of course exceptions to every rule but it's important to determine if losing a card in hand to be put in a facedown soul is worth it or not.

The following cards, in my opinion, could be considered staple/good cards from the set:

So, with these cards mentioned, let's start with the items because you'll notice your deck's design and gameplay are greatly influenced by which item you decide to run. In my opinion, Dark Arms, Soaring Blade is miles better than Dark Arms, Steel-slicing Strings. Being able to destroy the opponent's monsters at any point, even during their battle phase, by calling Oni Assassins with ambush then paying a gauge to destroy a monster hinders the opponent's battle phase. Compare that to Steel-slicing Strings where its effect is only useful during your battle phase. Oh, and the extra 1000 attack for all Oni Assassins is just icing on the cake.

With that out of the way, the best way to utilize the weapon is with an open center. So, you will implement primarily Fiend of a Hundred Flogs, Rashomon's move and soulguard to activate ambush abilities from Rashomon's soul both offensively and defensively. Red Lady Oni, Kureha is also a good secondary size 2 card with move but she doesn't have soulguard so all her facedown souls will trigger at once.

The size 1's help you either get more free facedown souls for free (Fiend of Gaze, Ayo) or help tutor your weapon (Fiend of Ailments, Affliction Oni). One tactic you can do with Affliction Oni is use your Dark Arms, Soaring Blade's monster destruction effect, ambush call Affliction Oni, equip a new Soaring Blade weapon and you'd have another weapon for both it's monster destroy effect or a potentially more offensive battle phase but rarely were these tactics used.

The size 0, Lesser Fiend, Amanojaku, was just a free to call size 0 that lets you draw a card and trigger Soaring Blade's monster effect. Solid card overall.

Spells wise, Hiding Oni is just free drawing/ambush activations with zero downsides. Also, keep in mind that Hiding Oni can take any soul (faceup OR facedown) from any CARD on the field. It can be from a monster, item or set spell (hint hint, Art of Explosive Hades Fall) or impact (hint hint, Secret Sword, Lethal Formation). This is also why this card can be used as a draw engine for a few other Katana World decks as well. The only "real" downside is starting the game with no setter cards to be able to use Hiding Oni but if the deck is designed well enough, that shouldn't be much of a problem.

Banquet for the Unrighteous is a flexible card. Either dig your deck for more monsters to get to a more ideal situation or use its setter effect to grab a card and put it facedown onto a monster on your field. Sure, in theory the setter effect is a minus 1 in card advantage but if you choose the right card from the drop, it can pay off pretty well. 

Oni Assassins do require a good amount of gauge to keep the engine running so Under the Table can help keep you full. Midnight Bodyguard is their attack null effect with easy resource set up for the facedown card you send to the drop.

House of Assassins, Oni Convoy may be a minus 1 in hand because you need to set the card on the field for no up front benefit but the ability to cycle out ambush only monsters out of your hand onto the field for set up while also replenishing your hand of that card is real strong and keeps your hand in a better position than without it.

Underhanded Means, Sneak Attack is quite possibly my most favorite card out of the set. At ANY counter moment, being able to pull a soul out of an Oni Assassin to destroy ANY card on the field is super strong and can hinder the opponent's field from working correctly. 

The last few Oni Assassins (Half-Fiend, Kid Yase, Dusk Fiend, Yagyo and Dark Skill, Eerie Wailings) I didn't mention fit more in the sideboard/tech-in category where they aren't bad but they aren't staples. Out of the three, I feel like most people looked over Yagyo the most. It was strong to call him, take souls out of a monster then use Soaring Blade to finally destroy the monster. Solid card synergy.

Dark Skill, Eerie Wailings isn't a bad card at all. It's just a card that people need to know when to use each of its abilities correctly and that will come with experience playing Oni Assassins. When played at the right time, it can be devastating but when played incorrectly, it can just be... "ok".

Also, again, don't forget that Art of Explosive Hades Fall, and Shinobi Scrolls were reprinted in this set which work well with the archetype even though they aren't Assassination cards. 

Lvl Up! Heroes & Adventurers!

The next set that had some Oni Assassin support was the Lvl Up! Heroes & Adventurers! set. There were only 3 cards and honestly, the cards are very middle of the road. In hindsight, the set in general felt very lackluster in quality despite people being very excited for their favorite characters or deck to get a new card. It felt like Bushiroad was purposefully holding back the throttle on the card's power.

Dispatcher from Assassin Circle, Sakate is the first in the set we'll talk about. The card is actually misprinted. The real ability allows the OA player to pay a life and put a soul from the field in general to the drop zone. So you can remove the soul from any card on either player's side of the field. It was misprinted and says you can only allow the OA player to remove a soul from their side of the field.

I have mixed emotions about this card. The biggest problem with this card is the lack of counter for its ability. If it had counter, I could see it being way more useful. Oni Assassins move fast during both player's turn so limiting this card to just once per turn on the OA player's turn feels bad. Also, like I said above, all Oni Assassin monsters are activators so this card being essentially a "double activator" (itself and then its own ability) makes this card redundant.

Next up is Ghoul Deity Demon Lord, Ibuki. I think the biggest problem with this card was people didn't run many size 3 Oni Assassins in the deck. The size 3's tended to be the "big impact" against the opponent and most were fine spending 1 more gauge for Oni Boss, Kid Ibuki where you can do potentially more damage and have double attack on a card with more power. Also, at this point, cards were starting to come out that prevented themselves from being destroyed by card effects so the Kid Ibuki's were slowly starting to lose their impact on the meta. It wasn't totally gone yet but it was noticeable.

Lastly, we have Uniform Professional, Assassin Frill. It's a beautiful card but its beauty can only go so far. I think there's two problems with this card that kept it from being played more. First, it's setter effect only activates when she attacks which, in an Oni Assassin deck, is slow. Second, you only got to choose 1 of 2 cards. Its super easy to have neither card have ambush. Also, its move was relatively pointless in Oni Assassins because Kureha and Rashomon had move and were more preferred targets to put in the center. You could put the card from Assassin Frill's ability in Kureha or Rashomon but then, her move is still completely pointless.

Overturn! Thunder Empire!

The next set with Oni Assassin support was Overturn! Thunder Empire! This was when cards were starting to get Overturn and Overkill abilities and honestly, Oni Assassins got a pretty solid Overkill ability with "Shuten Demonic Deity", Kid Ibuki. 

Its Overkill made it where when a monster would be destroyed, you would pay 1 gauge and choose a monster. For the turn, that monster could not be destroyed. Keep in mind that you did not have to choose the card that was just about to be destroyed (but most of the time, you would).

Shuten Kid Ibuki's second skill would board wipe the opponent's monsters and deal damage equal to the number of monsters destroyed. Usually, you wouldn't destroy many monsters but it did make him a solid threat on the field. 

To finish it all off, his last ability was move which was mainly used to put him in the center to force the opponent to attack him and then allow you to activate his Overkill.

Ibuki's Right-hand Man, Kid Ibaraki was very hyped. Especially since he did show up in the show with the crazy call cost of throwing the top 5 cards of your deck into his soul. That's about where his hype ended though. Kid Ibaraki had several problems.


First, he was a dead card unless you had an Oni Assassin item equipped which, sometimes didn't happen until your second turn and if that's the case, he's just a dead card. If you wanted to rely on him as your boss card, you had to make sure you ran enough weapons/tutors to guarantee to get your item first turn but that would cause the deck to be clogged with too many weapons. 

Second, as great as it is that he got 5 souls, he had no soul guard to help stagger the ambush effects so he had no persistent field presence like Rashomon could have. 

Third, the souls could be completely random. They could all be amazing ambush cards or none of them could be. From my experience, usually you would get 2-3 ambush cards in soul but, were they ones you even wanted? So, you would spend 1 card and 2 gauge in hopes for a better outcome than you started by just complete luck. The cost to outcome ratio just wasn't there. Especially since Kid Ibaraki doesn't synergize with himself (he doesn't have ambush) and you are reliant on other non-ambush cards (weapons) to even get him on the field. I think this was smart design wise because Bushiroad didn't want players to just play cards with ambush abilities and the only non-ambush card be Kid Ibaraki and have Oni Assassins be a complete fiesta of all 5 cards popping off effects.

Hidden Dark Arms, Yobigatana was almost like Kid Ibaraki in item form. When it attacks and deals damage or destroys a monster, you check the top 4 cards of your deck and put up to one facedown into the soul of an Oni Assassin on the field. The biggest problem that kept it from being potentially useful was the fact that you had to deal damage/destroy a monster to activate its effect. Its super easy to work around.

I suppose the counter argument then is to let the opponent spend resources to deny an underwhelming stat weapon from hitting but even then, you've had to expend a gauge and a card for your weapon which isn't cheap and doing more set up mid-battle is just slow for Oni Assassins.

If my memory serves correctly, Blue Fiend, Kid Kuma was used a little bit when this set came out. Primarily for the critical reduction. Oni Assassins already have super low defense and moderately high attack so unless an opponent's monster is hitting 0 power, the power and defense reductions weren't anything to write home about.

Watchful Eyes gave the opposite resources to what Under the Table gives. If you played Watchful Eyes from hand, you gained 2 life and a gauge. If you activated its ambush effect, you gained 3 life. The problem is, Oni Assassins rely way more heavily on gauge than life so Watchful Eyes was barely used. 

Ultimately, the only two "good" (using that word very liberally) cards out of Overturn! Thunder Empire! was "Shuten Demonic Deity" Kid Ibuki and Blue Fiend, Kid Kuma but this didn't really shake up the Oni Assassin gameplay that much.

X Duel Chest

In the X Duel Chest, there was only one new Oni Assassin card and that was Oniseer of Autodeity, Ibuki. This card didn't see much play because there are cards from earlier sets that do a better job of destroying monsters and cards. On top of that, by this point, it started to become very prevalent for cards to have anti-destruction effects so cards like this just didn't have the same impact on gameplay like they did in the past.

Driven to Disorder

Driven to Disorder finally came out with some new staples for Oni Assassins and mixed up the play style a little bit. Like we did with the first set, I'm going to divide how I talk about these cards. 

First lets list the good/staple cards:

Let's start with the new weapon because they tend to dictate how the decks going to play. Dark Arms, Demonic Poison Fumes Cube can be equipped for 1 life. You get a decent stat weapon (6000/1), you give all Oni Assassins 1000 power which is nice but nothing significant but, you also gain a gauge and life when a monster is called via ambush once per turn but it can be both you and your opponent's turn when it activates. The 1 life equip cost is significant because it lightens the load on how much gauge needs to be used in the deck while also increasing the gauge gained per turn. 

Thanks to Oni Horde, Underworld Legion, people tended to forgo the previous open center/move gameplay for a closed center field design. Demonic Poison Fumes Cube wasn't strong enough to warrant needing to attack with it so people just used it more as a resource gain support item.

Oni Horde essentially gave us a size 0 Rashomon because it had soulguard. Even though the call cost is in theory "bad" because you lose a card in hand, you don't have to put a card from hand into its soul to summon it. You could just free summon it and add souls other ways. Its once per turn burn 1 effect was a nice bonus as well. With is being a size 0, any assortment of sized Onis could be on the left and right without needing Oni Horde to be size ruled out like you would with Rashomon.

Lady Oni, Uji Bridge Princess was also a nice new way to gain gauge. I'm not sure about others but when she came out, I took out Under the Table out of my deck. Her call cost also says to add "up to one" card from hand to soul face down. Sometimes I would put a soul and other times, I just called her to gain the gauge to set up for future ambushes. She also synergizes well with herself. You can put a copy of herself in her own soul to gain potentially 4 or more gauge total. She was all 3 kinds of varieties of Oni Assassin cards. She was a setter due to her call cost, an activator with her ambush gauge gain and still an innate catalyst because she was a monster. There's no real situation where she's a bad card.

Ibuki's Encouragement is great because of it's great flexibility. It's first ability can be used offensively to push more or defensively to stymie the opponent's plan. Either way, you don't lose resources because of the free draw after pulling the soul. It's ambush ability is just a nice, easy gauge and draw to keep resources up.

Oni-Devouring Oni, Kid Ibuki "Arabone" is the new size 3. Because of all the cards getting effects that prevent them from being destroyed by card effects, Arabone's Overkill allows you to nullify their abilities first to still be able to destroy them. Remember that Overkill can't be countered so this was a free destruction. Unfortunately, its only once per game but better than nothing I suppose.

Besides ambush, move and penetrate, Arabone's other on call ability, "Hiding Demonic Deity" allows a card from deck facedown into its soul when it's summoned. Allowing people to continue ambushing with basically any card they want from the deck. Again, it's another card that is a setter (Hiding Demonic Deity ability), activator (has ambush) and catalyst (it's a monster). Usually cards that are all 3 are pretty good.

Next, let's list the bad/more niche cards:

Yatsuka Fiend, Tsuchigumo is such a strange card. I don't know where to begin. I suppose at it's best situation. At best, you pay 1 gauge for a size 2 monster with 7000/2/1000 stats, double attack, and penetrate. This card's design seems to want the players to push for game since it's all aggressive abilities but these are just average stats for a size 2 at best that won't be pushing for anything. Let alone the game. Also, all the abilities are only useful on the OA player's turn which is not how archetype plays. Oni Assassins are meant to mess and hinder the opponent during both player's turns. This card does nothing if it's called on the opponent's turn other than be a waste of a gauge. Overall, this card is a hard pass.

Even though I put Grudge Fiend, Hannya in the "bad" section, I actually quite enjoy her because of her ability to potentially destroy 2 cards for basically free (even though the chosen cards you can destroy are limited). When she first came out, I did have 1 copy of her in my main deck for flexibility on what I wanted to destroy. Nowadays though, she's just overshadowed by better options but I respect her. She's just more in the niche category.

Underhanded Means, Piercing Pins is another one in the niche/situational category. It's -10,000/-10,000 attack/defense debuff can help really hinder many threatening monsters. Also, it's first ability is actually very vanilla so it could be splashed in many decks as a free -4,000/-1/-4,000. Again, certainly not a bad card but its usefulness varies based on what decks the OA player is playing against.

I'm torn on Oni Castle of Contraptions. I personally don't feel that the card is worth the minus 1 to set the card. The 2,000 power is "nice" but nothing impactful. The soul removal effect is just another catalyst effect which isn't something that's hard to come by. I suppose if you tend to put a soul or two into your weapon and need a catalyst effect to get it out, you can use this card but overall, to me, this card feels underwhelming. It's serving a purpose that many other cards provide very easily and better.

Last, we have... CHAOS Ox-Head Horse-Face. I want to give the benefit of the doubt and say "every card has its uses" but this one quite frankly is basically trash. It's a size 3 monster. So by its very nature, it's a very easy catalyst. Then, you give it a catalyst effect that costs a gauge when you have cards like Oni Castle of Contraptions a free catalyst effect. Sure, being able to remove a soul from any card on the field is nice but, lets be honest, how often do you go "man, I wish I could remove that specific soul from this card". Not too often right? Not saying it can't happen but its not every game. Let's say you do need to remove a soul on the opponent's field. Then just use Dispatcher from Assassin Circle, Sakate. His costs a life AND you can at least draw from removing the soul. Also, Sakate is a size 0 so it'll interfere less with your facedown souls on the field and size ruling monsters out. So yeah, CHAOS Ox-Head Horse-Face is the most underwhelming support of the set.

New World Chaos

New World Chaos brought some more good cards however, I don't think any of them are absolute staples. So, let's again, for the sake of neatness, let's split them up between good and bad/niche.

The good:


Witching Hour Oni, Kid Ibuki "Gedomaru" (what a mouthful) is one of the SPs in the set. When it enters the field, it gives a card -6,000/-3/-6,000, has ambush and double attack. It's Overkill allows you to put up to three cards from your deck facedown into its soul. So, again, another card that is all 3 types. It's a setter (it's Overkill), activator (has ambush) and a catalyst (it's a monster). Pretty good card and helps slow down the aggression on the opponent's turn. Not bad. Also, the SP card art is 10/10 *chef's kiss*. 

If I had to give one downside to it, I would say compared to other Oni Assassin Overkills, this Overkill feels a little underwhelming but having access to any 3 cards in the deck is solid nonetheless.

Hairpin Blade, Hoozuki was the weapon that I replaced the Poison Fumes Cube with. The equip cost is a little expensive, 1 gauge and 1 life, but being able to get a draw everyone and still keep a closed center is a real solid card. Also, a quick side note because I know this isn't the Skull Warrior Archetype Archive, this weapon is perfect for Skull Warrior decks as well because the weapon just says the card has to be called from drop. It doesn't specify calling by ambush.

I've never used CHAOS Brand Dimensional Sword but, I don't think it's a bad weapon. It is a fine alternative to Hoozuki since they both can attack through center. I think its more based on preference more than anything. Dimensional Sword does allow you to take a soul out of any card on the field and gain a gauge so you could whittle down the soul of cards on your opponent's field if you want. Oh, and it has soulguard for some extra resilience. 

The bad/niche:

I think some people will look at Oni Consort Style, Trigger Tatami and wonder why I put it under this category since there isn't anything glaringly obvious why it's here. The effects aren't bad. The activation effect is to destroy all monsters on the opponent's field by removing a facedown soul from a card on the OA player's side of the field. The ambush effect destroys all set spells on the opponent's field. 

The reason why I put it here is because by this point in the game, any archetype worth its salt was getting anti-destruction effects so this card isn't as powerful as it could be. It's honestly a toss up between being in low tier good or high tier bad. If anti-destruction effects weren't so prevalent, I would've put it up in the good category.


As with Oni Consort Style, Trigger Tatami, White Mask Tyrant, Kid Ibuki isn't "bad" but, it's a bit too niche and paying 2 gauge for an ability that just returns a card on field back to hand is a little too expensive. His size can also potentially disrupt the OA player's field unintentionally (or intentionally based on what you plan). Granted, having a self setting ability is nice but all in all, paying 2 gauge for a bounce of an opponent's card is pretty expensive and downright ridiculous if you're planning on bouncing one of your own cards. There are just better size 3 Kid Ibukis to run that have more of an impact on the game.

Ok, now unlike the other two, CHAOS Lament Oni is just straight bad. Remember how I just said anti-destruction was very prevalent at this point when talking about Trigger Tatami? Now, imagine a new size 0 card being released that only destroys size 2 and greater monsters (which are already some of the most protected cards in the game) and you have CHAOS Lament Oni.

Buddyfight X2

Buddy Legends

The second part of X starts us off pretty well with Rampaging Evil Demon, Akuro-oh. I know he has destruction effects which aren't that strong at this point of the game but, there were still some situations that general card destruction were still ok and, his 2 damage was not dependent on anything being destroyed so when the opponent got low on life, this was a looming threat to just steal the game from the opponent by spam calling 2 or 3 of this card. Overall, he was a decent, viable option to consider.

Buddy Lineage

By this point in the game, almost all decks had anti-destruction so Oni Assassins were feeling underwhelming and basically needed a new gimmick to win games. This call was answered with Mountain Deity Oni Blade, Kid Ibuki. Yes, he is expensive at 2 gauge and 1 life however, Oni Assassins are well known for gaining a lot of gauge (Under the Table and Uji Bridge Princess) and with Watchful Eyes, life gain was a viable option as well.

Mountain Deity Oni Blade, Kid Ibuki was a good setter. Allowing the OA player to look at the top 5 cards of their deck and put 2 of them in the soul facedown of any Oni Assassin on the field (monster or item). Then, if he entered by ambush, the opponent would have to discard a card. This was the start of trying to have Oni Assassins make your opponent discard cards to hinder their gameplay. The only real counter to this strategy was Recover Veil but even then, the opponent can't use it forever because of the 1 life cost.

Also, keep in mind that if you wanted the cards from Kid Ibuki's effect to go into cards you summon in the future, you can do that. You can summon Kid Ibuki, his on call effect goes into the pool of pending effects, you could call, lets say Fiend of Gaze, Ayo, over him, then, activate his on call effect and select the Ayo you just summoned. Maybe this example isn't the most optimal and you would probably actually call Ayo first, put Ayo's effect in the pool, call over him to call Kid Ibuki and then use Ayo's effect on Kid Ibuki but you get the idea. Just because you summon one monster doesn't mean you have to complete all their effects before summoning other cards.

Blazing Overclash

Ok so, I have mixed feelings about Oeyama's Monstrous Oni, Kid Ibuki. On paper, he's not bad at all. In practice, I think there's one flaw but let's explain his abilities first. He costs 2 gauge and you MUST put a card in his soul facedown. This isn't terrible but if he's the last card in your hand, he's a dead card. He size reduces all other size 2 and lower Oni Assassins on the field by 2 which is nice. When he attacks you put an Oni Assassin from the drop into his soul which, again, is nice and to finish it all up, he has ambush, double attack and soulguard. All solid effects. He's basically a set up/spit out cards engine.

So what's his problem? His problem is that all size 2 and lower cards are usually set up cards (i.e. Kureha/Ayo/Affliction Oni) so you're just spinning in circles and if they're not set up cards (i.e. Hannya), their destruction effects will have minimal impact on the game due to all the anti-destruction in the game. Oh, so you want to have a larger impact and call a size 3? Well, you're going to be losing the whole engine on the field. He's designed to be a lasting engine on the field but if you want to cause any serious impact on the game, he has to get off the field.

Next, we have an absolute banger of a card and an absolute staple! Underhanded Means, Shedding Cycle is similar to Hiding Oni but there's some distinctive differences. Unlike Hiding Oni, it's counter speed with no restrictions. Shedding Cycle's call cost says you must drop a facedown soul from an Oni Assassin on the field and in exchange, you gain two life and draw two cards. Because of this, it's not really splashable in other non-Oni Assassin decks.

This card really helps with the life cost of Mountain Deity Oni Blade, Kid Ibuki and I think this card makes it so you don't have to rely on Watchful Eyes for life gain anymore for card costs. I always run this card at four. You can play it during your turn and play it again on the opponent's turn. There's never a really bad moment to have this card in hand.

The last, and in my opinion, the best Oni Assassin weapon to come out was Dark Arms, Fiery Bloom -Violet Blades-. Its equip cost is a little hefty. Having to pay 1 gauge and 1 life but, gauge isn't hard to get and with Shedding Cycle, the 1 life cost shouldn't be anything crazy. It can attack through center, it cannot be destroyed or returned to hand and most importantly, the gauge cost of all Oni Assassin monsters is reduced by 1. This last effect helps massively. Kureha's free and most Kid Ibukis only cost 1 gauge now. The cost reduction adds up pretty quickly.

Buddyfight Ace

Miracle Fighters

The Miracle Fighters set only introduced one new Oni Assassin spell. Underhanded Means, Live Another Day is actually a solid card. Certainly not a staple but it's a viable card option. It's normal effect is, return two Oni Assassins from drop to the bottom of the deck and if you do, choose a monster on the opponent's field and return it to their hand. Its ambush effect is the better ability though. It's ambush ability allows any card on the opponent's field to be bounced back to hand for free. 

Even though anti-destruction effects are pretty common at this point, anti-bounce effects are not so common. If used properly at the right time, it can bounce a card that provides anti-destruction to the rest of the field and leave the rest of the field vulnerable to destruction. It can be a little tricky to pull off but it's doable.

Ace Re: Collection Vol.1

In Ace Re: Collection Vol.1, Banquet for the Unrighteous got a reprint as a rare (instead of a triple rare) so that's nice. Nothing else to really take note. At this point in the game, I think it's still a solid, viable card for Oni Assassins.

Buddy Ragnarok

In the last set, we got Oni Boss, Kid Ibuki "Re:B". His abilities on paper are certainly not bad. He can be freely put into the soul of an Oni Assassin monster and if put, draw a card. So, easy free cycle. He can destroy a monster or item when he enters the field and if he entered by ambush, deal damage to the opponent equal to the destroyed card's critical and he has ambush, double attack and penetrate which are all good but again, at this point, all decks basically have anti-destruction so it's practically impossible to use him effectively without having to do a lot of maneuvering around the board. I'd rather just make the opponent discard cards with Mountain Deity Oni Blade, Kid Ibuki instead of fight with the board.


Promos

We'll finish off with the random promos. First up is Apex of Ambush. At counter speed, Apex can kill a size 1 or less monster on the opponent's field. Nothing special. Especially since size 1's aren't usually the problem on the field. The ambush effect is to destroy a size 2 or less which, I guess is better, but why run this when you can just run Underhanded Means, Sneak Attack or Oni Boss, Kid Ibuki to kill monsters? Nowadays, it's completely overshadowed by better cards. Even when it came out, there were other cards that had better, more devastating effects so this card never really saw any gameplay.

Next up is a dual Katana/Hero world monster called Demons Assassin, Ziogre. Ziogre's effect lets you show the opponent that you're putting Ziogre into the facedown soul of a monster on the field for free. This allows for easy Hiding Oni or Underhanded Means, Shedding Cycle targets (among a myriad of other card options). 

His other effect is similar to his Darkhero brethren. After he attacks, if the OA player has an item equipped, he bounces back to hand. Making him a tough card to lose because he never stays on the field to be killed. This allows easy activation of facedown souls below Ziogre to trigger mid-battle when he bounces back. Overall, this card has pretty solid effect and is pretty flexible. Even at the end of the game, I think he can have his uses.  

Last, but certainly not least, is Body of Dark Arms, Kid Ibuki. He's a Kid Ibuki that is actually decent in my opinion. He costs the usual 2 gauge for Kid Ibuki with Ambush, Double Attack and 9,000/2/3,000 stats. If he just enters the field, you can choose and item or monster on the opponent's field and for this turn AND next, it cannot [Stand]. Then, if he entered by ambush, rest the card and burn the opponent for 1 damage. 

The normal on call effect is to keep the opponent from re-standing a card from standing during their draw phase and the ambush effect is meant for the middle of the opponent's battle phase. Pretty good card to help control the opponent's field without relying on destruction effects.


Honorable Mentioned Cards & Staples

So, there you have it. My opinion on every card and how good they are at that time's current meta. I do want to wrap up the review with two things. The first is cards that deserve an honorable mention that are not directly Oni Assassin cards but work well either in the deck or sideboard options. I may have already mentioned some but I just want to make a comprehensive list. The second thing is what I consider absolute staples of Oni Assassins at the end of the game. Regardless of how you want to play the decks, these staples should be in any deck worth their salt.

Honorable mention cards in no particular order:

- Chess Break (mainly for dealing with Invitation to Death Ground)
- Demon Way, Sakurafubuki (limit of 1)


End of game staples for any Oni Assassin deck style in no particular order:

Now remember, I think these cards are staples for any Oni Assassin deck to just function. Which techs, items and main size 3 you want to run are totally up to you and your play style. The cards mentioned above are just solid regardless of any other card choices for the deck. That's why I never specified which item is technically the best. A few of them are good. It's just dependent on the playstyle you want. 

That about sums up everything. Out of curiosity, I copy and pasted all the text and photos of this post in a word document and it came to 25 pages so... yeah. I essentially wrote a manual on Oni Assassins haha. It was fun doing it and I hope it helps you form ideas and opinions of your own. I hate to write out every possible combo with every card because I think half the fun is thinking of these deeper combos on your own. I'm just trying to give you the basics... 25 pages worth of basics... anyways, up next is Electrodeities which, hopefully will be a little more simple and straightforward. Until then, I'll see ya around!

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Friday, January 26, 2024

The Return!... (for now)

 The Return!... (for now)



Well this is awkward...Hi!... It's been a while. Almost... *looks at date of last post* holy moly! Just over 4 years!

I'm sure some people have questions on where I've been and what I've been up to and I'll certainly try to get to them. Hopefully by just talking here. This post will be more of a ramble than any solid format (but I will try to keep it cohesive).

(Also, any future memes in this post aren't made by me and I don't remember their sources. They've been on my phone for years)

In the Beginning...


So... I guess first things first, where have I been for 4 years? Well, to start off, I don't ever really "quit" something until I see it to completion. So while I didn't write anything for 4 years, the blog was still in the back of my mind... in a dark closet... bound and gagged... with no food... or toilet... in deep freeze...

Second, I should mention the one thing that made me start to feel less motivated to write blog posts and that is the official cancelling of English print Buddyfight and any official support in North America. 

Yeah, I was pretty devastated but in hindsight, I could see it coming. People seemed to be losing interested in Buddyfight primarily due to power creep. I commend Bushiroad on trying something different with the crossover sets but that only seemed to do so well. I didn't hate the idea but I personally didn't have any interest in the anime's they printed.

Once that was official, I just, kinda stopped caring about the game. Like, sure I still collected (and oh boy did I collect) and played casually but without new content, the flame just kinda dies down into an ember. Still there but not that hot or bright.


The Hunt for a New Hobby



At the same time, COVID was in high swing so, what does a guy do locked up during COVID and subsequently the following 4 years? Oh you know... the pretty reasonable thing of learning Japanese and becoming semi-fluent in it.

Why? Well, a few reasons:

    1. I wanted to test something about myself and see if I could learn a language and have fun doing it? For context, when I was in high school, I hated learning Spanish. I had no interest, want or need to learn it nor did I care about the culture. I did pass Spanish in high school. Without a problem actually. I had an average my last class at around 90. Once the class was done, I dumped the knowledge. 

If I was going to try to learn a language, I wanted it to be one that I had the most interest in. So, being a weeb, and having a distant, bird's eye view interest for Japanese culture, I decided to go with Japanese. Which studies have shown is the second hardest language for a westerner to become fluent in. Funny enough, being a fan of Katana World was NOT a reason for wanting to learn the language. 
    
    2. My local friend group and I were talking about planning on going to Japan for a trip "soon"... that was in 2020 and due to Covid, that has been pushed back now to 2025 which seems to be a solid plan right now. So, I have been learning to help our group navigate Japan when we go. 

After 4 years (in March 2024), knowing Hiragana, Katakana, roughly 2,400 kanji and more than 10,000 words, I would say it was well worth it and have had legitimate fun and I'm still practicing and studying. I do want to get to know 100 more kanji just to make it an smooth 2,500 but there's other things like speaking, listening and comprehension that could use more attention so I'm still plugging away at Japanese. For me, it's more about the journey to fluency and not the destination. So I guess you can say I'm jouzu at Japanese now (if you get that, you get a high five).

Oh, I also binged my old school childhood game Maplestory for about a year. That was fun and while there's never an end to MMO's, in my eyes, I got to the point that I'm done and happy. Maybe in the distant future, I'll return to check it out again but will the whole current fiasco around Nexon, I'm done with the game for now. I'm not one for drama but Nexon seems to be digging themselves a grave with the game.

I've also had a couple job changes in the past 4 years that kept me busy from thinking about the blog but that's settled right now. I have a good job that I don't plan on changing anytime soon.

Back to the Present



So, that's the bird's eye view of the past 4 years. So, now that things have calmed down in my life, and recently, Bushiroad decided to print some new cards in Japan for Buddyfight's 10th anniversary, I decided to thaw out this blog's corpse from the dark closet and at least have a complete catalogue of my thoughts on the English printed Katana World cards. 

It's currently unknown if Bushiroad will ever print new English cards. I hope they do. I have sent an email asking them to bring back the game. While I'd prefer they start from scratch with a new season and keep the power creep in check, I would be lying if I said I wouldn't be happy if they just continued on as is. 

That being said, I'd urge anyone who wants Buddyfight back to send a politely worded email to Bushiroad's support email and give them your feedback on wanting the game to come back.

Oh also, I have no interest in reviewing Buddyfight Drive cards. For those unaware, Thailand continued making new cards after the game ended in North America and called it Buddyfight Drive. The cards are only being printed in Thailand with what appears to be no chance of an English printing. If new cards do come to English, I'll certainly review them but that's going to be my standard going forward. If my English speaking audience can't even own the cards. I'm not reviewing them.

Looking to the Future


So, now that all that's behind us, where do we go from here? Well, I have a few things I want to complete. Both on the blog and on YouTube:

Blog:
    
    - Finish the Archetype Archive posts. I stopped on Japanese Blades and never finished Oni Assassins, Electrodeity or Bladedancers

    - Go back to completed Archtype Archive posts and refine/expand them

    - Finish my set reviews. Mainly just Buddy Ragnarok which shouldn't be a huge post

    - Do a review of the Katana World promos. There's not that many and there's not to say about most of them but for the sake of completeness, I should do it.

    - Think of maybe one or two more posts on Common Rulings and Misconceptions. They're fun to do and they can help others with confusing situations

YouTube:
    
    - Make an individual deck profile for each of my Katana World decks as they stand now. The games complete in English so there's only so many options now to optimize a deck. I also have a few non-Katana World decks I love just as much as Katana World that I want to make a deck profile on as well.

    - I might (strong might) make a few YouTube clips about Buddyfight cards and little tid bits of facts but I want to get everything above done first or at least started

So yeah, that about sums up everything. Hope that answers most or all your questions!
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Thursday, January 23, 2020

Perfected Time Ruler Katana World Set Review

Here we are again. New set, new post about new set cards! Before I head into the cards, I would like to mention that I'm only going to cover cards that have a use in some way to Katana World decks. There are a couple Katana World cards that if they had no business being in Katana World because they only support Time Dragons. I skipped over those cards in this review since all I would basically say anyways is "This card is not good for any Katana World deck since all the requirements are Time Dragon related".

Great Electrodeity of Freedom, Izanami


Let's start with Amaterasu's mama! Izanami has respectable stats which are 12000/2/12000 and has static triple attack regardless of which of her abilities you choose. Her main ability is named "Leave it to me!" and it's a named once per turn. This is the first size 3 electrodeity for it's ability to have a named once per turn ability. This means that you cannot activate it on an Izanami monster on the field and an Izanami item you're possessed into on the same turn.

Her "Leave it to me!" skill has one of two choices. The first skill allows the player to gain another turn if they drop 5 different size 3 Electrodeity from hand. By different, it means the 5 cards all must be differently named, unique size 3's. The second option allows the player to call a size 3 Electrodeity from drop without paying the call cost and its size is reduced to 0 until it leaves the field.

Ultimately, the point of Izanami is to use the first ability to get an extra turn then, during the second turn, call one of the size 3s that were discarded back as a size 0. It's a nice game play idea and getting 5 different size 3s in hand is a decent challenge to get an extra turn. I don't see it being good enough to win tournaments but at least Electrodeities have a new game play style other than being a shell for Lost World.

The biggest issue holding this deck back from being really good is the lack of good size 3 Electrodeities. Currently, there are 7 different size 3 Electrodeities. Opinions can vary but generally speaking, I believe that out of those 7, 2 are solid staples (both Amaterasu forms), 3 are decent (Mizuhanome, Izanami and Ameno-Wakahiko) and 2 are subpar (Amatsuhikone and Susanoo). Fortunately, between the staples and decent category, that adds up to 5 so the viability is there but it would be nice in the future for Bushiroad to release a few more decent size 3s to add more variety.

Fortunately, as we'll see later in the post, there are some new Electrodeity cards that help recur the discarded size 3s or dig deeper into the deck to find size 3s so the player can have more extra turns. Also, keep in mind that starting with Buddyfight Ace, a player can't have more than one extra turn in a row.

Also, while you, the viewer is trying to formulate a deck, don't forget about older Electrodeity cards to help get the 5 different size 3 Electrodeity cards faster. Mainly Guardian Electrobeast, Goryou, Miracle Fighter, Kagura, Electrodeity Welcome and Electrodeity Return.

Nanomachine Ninja, Tsukikage "Re:B"


Bushiroad started to print old buddies from the previous seasons and change their effects but usually keep it within the scope of the original skill. Then, they put a "Re:B" at the end. It's a way for them to modernize the old buddies the community have grown to love by updating their effects to better match the current power creep. Tsukikage was one of these instances.

Re:B Tsukikage has two skills now. His first skill is a tutor for up to 2 size 1 Katana World monsters and add them to your hand. If you add two, you discard a card. His second skill is very similar to his original "Nanomachine Body Replacement" ability. Now, it activates on any monster on the field and it can be used when the monster leaves by any means. Unlike the original which was only on destruction.

So what does this mean? Well he's much more viable in other decks as a tutor. Earlier seasons in Katana World relied mainly on size 1 monsters so Skull Warriors, Blade Beasts and Oni Assassins can use him to help tutor monsters they want. Discarding for all these decks is not really an option either since they either want certain cards in drop or can call monsters back from drop so the discard isn't a big hit.

Many of these decks mentioned also don't have a lot of protection on the board or would prefer cards to be destroyed but it's nice if they could stay on the field as well so Tsukikages new "Nanomachine Body Replacement" helps to that end. Skull Warriors could be destroyed but remain. Blade Beasts could get more cards in drop by the discard and Oni Assassins can drop targets they can recur back later.

Kagura, Blossom Dancer


Blossom Dancer has two abilities that can only be played during the opponent's turn. The first is you may equip up to one electrodeity item from the deck or drop zone and if you searched your deck, shuffle it. The second is just a simple "next damage taken is reduced to 0" effect. 

The first effect is more important than the second. Prior to this card, if Electrodeities went second, they were practically open to any threat the opponent could present. Many times being an easy target for FTK decks. With this card, now during the opponent's start phase, Blossom Dancer can be used to equip Kagura-bell of Worship from deck or drop. Then, once the opponent goes into main phase, the player can equip a size 3 from hand and at least hold a chance. Also, if the size 3 item and/or bell are put to the drop, this spell can help recover the player back into the game by, at the very least, getting the bell re-equipped.

Electrobeast Emissary, Shino


Shino is a nice consistency card for either getting a size 3 electrodeity in hand to start off the game or the new play style with Izanami where you can drop 5 different size 3 electrodeities to get another turn. It's size reduction doesn't matter a lot but it does work much better on the board when it's a size 0. It's last effect acts like a soulguard for any electrodeity on the field. Even the item. Just like Cherry Blossom Dance. That'll help somewhat against decks like Godpunks that can put cards to drop via call costs or the new Time Dragons with them returning cards back to the bottom of the player's deck.

Freed Flower of Yosen


A new attack null for Electrodeities! Unlike other attack nulls where the player gains life or gauge back, this one can end the battle phase if it's the third or more attack. Helps deal with decks that have a lot of attacks in the battle phase. It will probably be a 3 or 4 of in any Electrodeity deck. Regardless if its a Lost Electrodeity or a normal Electrodeity deck. Denying your opponent all of their attack phase is really strong.

Fusion Style, Stance of Staring -Ichi-


Love this card. It's pretty straight and simple. During an attack phase (either players attack phase) check the top 3 cards of your deck, put 2 to hand and 1 to gauge and it can only be casted once per turn. It's unfortunate it's during the attack phase so you can't work on setting up with your item and size 2/3 of choice during the main phase but I'll take consistency where I can get it. Bladedancers still run Goryou anyways.

Excelskill of Iai, "Kamikaze"



A new impact for Bladedancers! About time. This one helps in so many ways that the first one didn't. First, the cast requirements is the same as Pinnacle of Iai, Godspeed. Second, the cast cost is different but shouldn't be much of a problem. Kamikaze costs 2 gauge instead of 1 gauge and a life. Especially since Bladedancers also received Fusion Style, Eye-gouging Stance -First Rank-.

Kamikaze's effect nullifies the attack, and for the turn nullify all abilities of the attacking cards, destroy those cards, draw two cards and deal 3 damage to the opponent. What really makes this impact better is that regardless of the board state, you can at least draw 2 and attempt to deal 3 damage to the opponent. That's where Godspeed fell short. It didn't have any draw effect and its 3 damage depended on one or more cards being destroyed which is hard to do because many decks have abilities that prevent their cards from being nullified or destroyed by card effects at the same time.

Keep in mind that the draw 2 can be a curse in late game when the deck could be very low on cards but it's generally accepted to be a positive. Also, just as a reminder, this card can be tutored by SUZU.

Also, as an aside, spell nulls don't work on impacts. This should be obvious by now but I've met a few people who think impacts count as spells.

Conduction Swordsman, RIN


RIN is a nice addition to Bladedancers to help them keep a board on the field but she conflicts with a card from the last support which is Fusion Style Training Grounds, KAZIBA which seems like an odd design choice. Even the player can't destroy their own cards with Celestial Arts, Returning Water if RIN is on the field. That being said however, KURAGANE's forms had a difficult time staying on the field even with soulguard so she'a welcome addition. Other wise, she just gives the deck more aggression. Only small downside is her stats are pretty low. 

Electrobeast Emissary, Kouki


Kouki is like a mix of Electrodeity Return and Electrodeity City Center, Takamagahara but fails to be as useful as either one on their own. She's a jack of all trades, master of none kind of card. She can only return one size 3 electrodeity from drop back to hand and she doesn't cover as many effects from Takamagahara.

I understand the new support is built around getting various size 3 electrodeity in hand for Izanami's extra turn skill but I'd rather grab back 2 different size 3 electrodeities with Electrodeity Return instead of Kouki. That being said though, a deck built around Izanami is probably going to run both Kouki and Electrodeity Return anyways. I don't see her being run in a Lost Electrodeity deck which, between the two deck choices, is the more competitive option.

Takamagahara is usually a sideboard card anyways and covers more protection than Kouki so there really isn't many reasons to run Kouki just for field protection however, in a deck built around Izanami, she would be a good choice so the opponent can't interfere with the board as much during the player's extra turn.

Kronos Retrograde


This card is the second bounce spell for Katana World. The first being Water Technique Minawagakushi. While you could technically counter call a Time Dragon monster from hand, there aren't enough useful monsters that are both Time Dragon and Katana World to run it in any deck for that specific purpose. This is more of a sideboard card for the bounce at best.

Time General, Plage Dents


For being a Time Dragon, Plage Dents surprisingly fits as a control/beatstick card in Garninjas. His size is reduced by 3 when Garga is on the field. His discard ability fits perfectly with the Ninja's discard theme. Bounce is in a better place than destruction (but not by much) but it's unfortunate it's only once per turn when it's not that strong of an ability. He has double attack with some decent stats as well to help with trying to clear monsters on the field.

Overall, a surprisingly decent card for Garninjas. Especially for Bushi's track record of Time Dragon cards usually being pretty useless for the world they're in. If someone wanted to build just a straight aggressive form of Garga, I could see this being used to bounce back monsters and have the opponent wide open to be attacked.

Time Observer, Nautical



Generally speaking, this card is useless for Katana World. However, Nautical is one of those cards that is a generic splash into a deck if you really need soul removal. There's better cards out there for soul removal that can use their effects sooner in a turn and that aren't a size 2 monster that has to take up your field during the battle phase just to use a mediocre effect. I mainly just wanted to point out that it is an option.

Deity Dragon Ninja, Fuuma


Fuuma is a nice consistency addition to both Tsukikage ninjas and Garninjas since it allows the player to search for their item. I don't know how after all these years, no such tutor was made until now. It helps bump up Garninja's FTK consistency since players needed Garkunai to FTK. Previously, Garninja decks just had to keep drawing and drawing and drawing and hope they get their item.

His second ability gives all Dragod and Ninjas penetrate for the turn which is "nice" but there's so much damage reduction and "players can't take effect damage" effects that it probably won't be useful most of the time for its discard effect. This card's main goal should be to just tutor

Time Scout Herite



Last (and certainly least) is Herite. Some people may question why I have Herite on the review since he's a time dragon but I just want to point out that "technically" he is usable in Garninja decks to just call at counter speed but this effect isn't worthwhile enough to run him in Garninjas. His stats are bad enough that he's not going to take anyone by surprise and do something worthwhile. Garninja can't even get the critical reduction portion of his ability.
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Friday, September 13, 2019

Blazing Overclash Katana World Set Review

Blazing Overclash is an alternative set in the english release. It is a combination of two different sets that were released in Japan. Those two sets were Clash! Batzz vs Geargod and the Succession Buddyfight Pack.

The set focuses on giving small (but good) support to various older archetypes to bring them up to snuff in the power creep of the game. A lot of the support is for the decks released during the Buddyfight X season but there is minimal support for many older archetypes. The noticable exception being Hundred Demons which received many useful monsters, spells and items.

Regardless, this article will only be focusing on Katana World cards and dual cards that are part Katana World so lets hop right in!


Oeyama's Monstrous Oni, Kid Ibuki




Lets start off with one of my favorite buddy monsters. Kid Ibuki has a new form. His power is relatively lacking at 8,000 power, 2 critical and 2,000 defense. His call cost is "Put up to one card from your hand into its soul face down and pay 2 gauge". This is relatively expensive but about normal for size 3 Oni Assassin call costs.

His first ability reduces the size of all 2 and lower monsters by 2. This helps him stay on the field while the size 1/2 cards that put cards face down into soul (such as Ayo and Kureha) don't size him off the field. However, if you want to commit to a major "assassination" with a size 3 (such as Akuro-oh) then you're going to have to lose Kid Ibuki on the field. Sometimes that could be wanted. Especially if you want to activate all of the face down souls in Kid Ibuki anyways but sometimes its not. It's this distinction of being efficient on your face down souls that will separate good Oni Assassin players from bad ones.

Kid Ibuki's last unique ability is that when he attacks, the player can put an Oni Assassin from drop zone into an Oni Assassin's soul face down. He has double attack as well so this can potentially activate twice in one turn. Keep in mind it doesn't have to be Kid Ibuki's soul that the cards go into. Sometimes it's not a bad idea to keep a card in reserve in the item's soul.

Lastly, he has the standard Ambush, to bring him back from drop if he was in a face down soul, and soulguard, to help stagger the ambushes from his soul. Instead of all of them going off at once.

Overall, not a terrible card but not something Oni Assassins needed that directly fought problems they face. The play style of the deck is going to sit on this form of Kid Ibuki spewing out size 2 or less monsters or ambush-like spells with varying effects until the time is right to shift to a different size 3 monster. Then, in a perfect world, once that monster is done on the field, you should try to re-ambush Kid Ibuki back to center. This card will help deal with the "pinata effect". Where a non-soulguard Oni Assassin would be destroyed with 2+ souls and not all the face down souls would be applicable for the situation and they could either be useless or not have their full effect be utilized.

I'm hesitant to say if the card will do any significance to Onis being competitive. On paper, it sounds like it has potential but in practice it may not perform as well as intended. We'll find out. After all, that's half the fun of play testing!

Underhanded Means, Shedding Cycle




Now Shedding Cycle, on the other hand, is what makes me get up in the morning. I'm always a sucker for advantage and draw spells fit right into that category. It's a spell with it's cast cost being "Drop a face down soul from an Oni Assassin on your field". Once completed, the player gains 2 life and draws 2 cards and it's a hard once per turn.

This serves a couple purposes well. It gives the deck more life gain to help survive against very aggressive decks and while still giving card advantage. The only other two cards that gave a lot of life gain for Oni Assassins was Watchful Eyes and Dark Arms, Demonic Poison Fumes Cube but neither gave anything more to actually stay in the game. Watchful Eyes doesn't do anything after it give its 2-3 life. A long with the fact that life is used much less than gauge in Oni Assassins, the life gain was practically non-impactful. The cube's 1 life/gauge per turn doesn't help perpetuate plays. It only mitigated the cost of the plays that were currently going on (which had to be paid first before the Cube's refund) and it was once per turn.

Shedding Cycle helps the player survive (with the life) and perpetuate plays by giving two hand cards while also giving you the two life first before the ambush plays happened.

Dark Arms, Fiery Bloom - Violet Blades




Last but not least for the Oni Assassin support is a new item! Its equip cost is pretty standard for Oni Assassin items at 1 life and gauge.

To fit more with the closed center Kid Ibuki play style, the umbrella can attack through center even if an Oni Assassin is in the center.

This is the first Oni Assassin item to have the "can't be destroyed by card effects" effect to help give it some resiliency. It would still probably be wise to put a face down card or two in the soul of the item to either recover from a bad situation or to have there be a consequence for the opponent putting the item to drop or bouncing the item to hand.

Last but certainly not least is that it reduces the gauge call cost of Oni Assassin monsters by 1 so Under the Table and Uji Bridge Princess aren't needed as much for their gauge gain. This should indirectly allow the deck to sustain itself for a longer period of time because not as much gauge is going to be needed from the top of the deck either which means deck outs shouldn't happen as frequently.

Overturn Ghoul Deity, Gojinmaru




Gojinmaru is back with a new form and he has Overturn to boot. He requires 2 monsters on the field go to into his soul and 2 gauge to be paid which is about par for the course for his call cost.

His first ability grants him triple attack and counterattack when a spell is cast. So ideally, triple attack would be during the player's turn and counterattack would be for the non-player's turn.

He comes with a new Overturn that allows all cards to be given Shadow Dive for the turn and an extra critical all for just dropping a hand card which, lets be honest, isn't much of a cost when ninjas regain advantage when they discard.

This card helps the aggressive ninja play style that started back in the X season. It's nothing that will bring ninjas back into relevance but now they're basically a deadlier Death archetype that may catch monster center heavy decks off guard.

I'll be honest, I would've preferred if Bushiroad supported some of the older "counter play" play style that season 1 and 2 ninjas specialized in but that play style is very slow for the current state of the game and this single card would be more impactful.

Weaver of Dream and Fate, Miko




Miko has received her own dual Dungeon/Katana World card! She's a double rare as well which may seem shocking but she's a super generic card that can be a decent defense for almost all Katana World decks.

She's a size 0 that's free to call. Her first ability is if an item would leave the field (through any means and to any location), you may sacrifice her and the item remains on the field.

Her Counter [Act] ability allows the her to nullify an attack that is being directed at the player by putting her from the drop zone to the bottom of the deck and pay 1 gauge. Then, you gain 3 life. This could have use in any open center related deck and it might have potential in drop zone reliant decks such as Skull Warriors/Water since sending cards to the drop is a common occurrence.

This may also replace Cherry Blossom Dance in regards to it's item protection effect but Cherry Blossom Dance may still be used if playing against a deck that likes to call from drop.

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That's about wraps up this set! In case you haven't noticed yet, I did change the background of my blog to make it less bland and more fitting for the blog. It was made by Harry Mansour over at Last Minute Designs. Check out their facebook page here! Hope you all enjoy the background!

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Sunday, July 21, 2019

Archetype Archive: Japanese Blade


The attribute "Japanese Blade" has been around since the first set with Katana World (Cyber Ninja Squad). It was not fully fleshed out as an archetype until Season 3 (Triple D) with the "Blade Beast" attribute being included.

Players should be aware that there is a difference between the Japanese Blade attribute and the Blade Beast attribute. The difference is all the items, monsters, impacts and spells related to the archetype are Japanese Blade but only the monsters can have the Blade Beast attribute. This is somewhat important but I'll explain why later.

The general play style of the deck is to get DIFFERENT Japanese Blade cards in drop to make your cards on the field more powerful. I stress the word different because it means differently named Japanese Blade cards. Having two of the same card in the drop does not count as two different Japanese Blades. It counts as one. Therefore, the deck will need to run some cards at one in the deck to actually be more efficient.

Buddyfight Season 1


The start of things to come.
So here we are. Starting back at the beginning of Katana World. Japanese Blade as an attribute was introduced but by no means had a deck based around it. It was more the attribute used for early Katana World weapons since they were all based on Japanese swords. Sure you could see a possible basic concept come up with Elite Sword, Mikazuki Munechika but no significant support. The only other Japanese Blade was the vanilla weapon Ninja Blade, Kurogachi.

The next Japanese Blade item was in Drum's Adventure. You could loosely see the "cards in drop" style even more in Five Heavenly Swords, Onimaru since it would lose a soul at the end of the player's turn when it was rested and would be destroyed when it had no more souls left. However, at this point, it was just a stronger vanilla weapon that just destroyed itself after a while.

The last Japanese Blade weapon of season 1 was in Break to the Future. Elite Sword, Juzumaru required a card to be discarded to be equiped and for it to become stronger, required two or more Ninjas on the field. Even by season 1's standards, the card was bad. Especially since Ninjas were played with a closed center. This card had no place in Ninjas. Five Heavenly Swords, Onimaru was still the preferred weapon.

Buddyfight Hundred


This is a Japanese Blade item
The Japanese Blade items in Galaxy Burst still continued the drop related effects. Elite Sword, Dojigiri gained a critical and penetrate if there is an "Elite Sword" or "Five Heavenly Swords" in drop zone.

There is a reason for the odd inclusion for the "Five Heavenly Swords" text. Bushiroad wanted to include the Onimaru sword in Dojigiri's effect. All the items with "Elite Swords" actually translate to "Five Heavenly Swords" in Japanese.

For some reason, Bushiroad decided to translate "Five Heavenly Swords" into "Elite Sword" in English. Maybe to make the text name shorter. Then, for some reason unknown to me, they gave the correct translation for "Five Heavenly Swords, Onimaru". At this point though, they decided to stick with the "Elite Sword" translation from here on out and needed to include Onimaru in Dojigiri's card effect so they added the "... or Five Heavenly Swords" clause in the card's effect.

Blood for the blood god
I believe Tempest Sword, Makiarashi was the first item in the game to allow the player to attack with the item through the center even if there was a monster in the center. Sure it costed a life and one less critical than a vanilla sword but since Katana World only had decks that were closed center at the time, this could actually be useful.

Believe it or not, Water Slash Sword, Murasame is actually a Japanese Blade weapon. It was finally received an errata during the X season to give it the Japanese Blade attribute. Weird I know to finally give it its well deserved attribute so late but better late than never I suppose.

The last Japanese Blade item in the Hundred season was in the Lord of Hundred Thunders extra booster. Giant Fiend Sword, Kuromuramasa has 6,000 power and a whopping 4 critical and costs one gauge. However, the player takes one damage whenever they attack with it.

The self inflicted damage is to reflect the sword's lore. The lore states that the swordsmith Muramasa Senji was a mad person who created swords that demanded blood whenever they were drawn and could not be sheathed until the sword was satisfied with enough blood.

Buddyfight Triple D


Alright. Now we're getting into the meat and potatoes of the archetype with the Roar! Invincible Dragons! set. Blade Beasts were introduced in this set and they're the idea that the swords we've been talking so far have "spirit animals" in them because these swords have existed for so long.

So for example, Elite Sword, Mikazuki Munechika's blade beast is Blade Beast of Blinder, Mikazuki Munechika. Also, a little warning, the blade beasts tend to have long card names so I'll refer to the blade name and say either item or monster once I've stated them (i.e. Mikazuki monster or Mikazuki item).
The goodest boy

With the Mikazuki Munechika monster, you can see where Bushiroad started to implement the "X or more different Japanese Blade in drop" effects. If there's two or more different Japanese Blade in drop, he gains a critical. At the end of his battle that he attacked, if there are five or more different Japanese Blade in the drop, he gets double attack and has just static move and penetrate.

Elite Sword, Dojigiri's Blade Beast monster is Blade Beast of Ghostslash, Tojikiri Yasutsuna. Tojikiri is the Japanese Blade monster or item searcher for the deck. He does cost two gauge (ouch) but he also has a super easy Japanese Blade drop effect to activate. As long as there is just a Japanese Blade in the drop, he gains a critical and penetrate. This is to simulate the Dojigiri weapon ability but make it more general and appropriate for the archetype instead of limiting the card text to "Elite Sword" or "Five Heavenly Sword".

A new elite sword enters the game! This one is Elite Sword, Odenta. It costs a gauge and a life and can't be destroyed by card effects. Pretty simple and straightforward.

What is weird is the Blade Beast monster's effects isn't even close to the item. Blade Beast of Guillotine, Oden Tamitsuyu is a size 3 that costs two gauge. When it enters the field, if there is five or more different Japanese Blade in drop, you can destroy a card on the opponent's field which was strong back in Triple D. There is an easier drop zone effect that gives her double attack if there are two or more different Japanese blade as well and it innately has move.

The item Five Heavenly Swords, Onimaru was reprinted in this set too which makes sense since it's pivotal for the deck to function. Mainly getting cards from deck to drop.

Can't touch this
Blade Beast of Phantasm, Onimaru Kunisuna is the Blade Beast for the Onimaru item and performs the same purpose as the Onimaru item. He is a strong turn 1 card to call, damage for 3, set up the drop and have some defense.

Blade Beast of Exorcism, Juzumaru Tsunetsugu equivalent weapon is Elite Sword, Juzumaru from the Break to the Future set in season 1. Juzumaru Tsunetsugu's ability is also not even close to his item's ability. When he enters the field, you gain a gauge and this isn't once per turn. Nothing crazy.

Sword Skill, Zanteisettetsu is the only defensive spell that is exclusively for Blade Beasts. Since most size 2 and 3 Blade Beasts have move, they're usually being the target of attacks in the center. This spell helped keep them alive and counterattack the attacking monster.

The spell could also be used to keep an item alive. If an item was going to be destroyed, you could use the spell to keep it on the field. It could also be used on Five Heavenly Swords, Onimaru when it would be sent to the drop zone by its own effect to keep it on the field for one more turn.

The last card to talk about is also the impact card of the set. Blade Beast Formation, Shape of the Elite could only be casted if there were 5 or more different Japanese Blade in the drop. By paying 3 gauge, the player gets another attack phase and all the Japanese Blade stand so the can attack again. It's not a terrible card and was usually run at 1 or 2 copies since seeing the card early in the game has it do nothing.

The last set with any Japanese Blade support in DDD was Dragon Fighters with two cards.

What do you think its
Blade Beast's abilities are?
 Japanese Blade finally received an Impact Monster! Mikazuki Munechika, "Forbidden Art Blade Deity Descends!" was a size 2 with 8,000 power, 2 critical and 5,000 defense. It was a slightly easier impact to go off than Shape of the Elite however, it doesn't do potentially as much damage as Shape of the Elite but it does leave a good quality monster on the field. The amount of potential damage output is negligible and the fact that you can put a dying Onimaru sword or monster into its soul to leave pressure on the board was real nice.

The last Japanese Blade card of the set is Blue Secret Katana, Zetsu. The card had weak power but decent critical (1,000 power, 3 critical). When it attacks, you can grab a card with [Set] from the drop and add it to your hand.

The card has never had a good place in a Japanese Blade deck. I did notice a certain deck that could be made with it in Japanese Blade though. The deck revolved around Japanese Blade monsters and Art of Explosive Hades Fall. Since the Japanese Blade monsters ranged from 1 - 3 at this point, Hades Fall had good flexible options. Then, once Hades fall activated, Zetsu could re-grab Hades Fall from drop.

There were two problems with this deck though. First, its partially dependent on the Japanese Blade player knowing match ups and what to put underneath Hades Fall. Second, the deck was slow. If Hades fall went off successfully during the opponent's turn, you would have to wait until the turn AFTER your next turn to re-cast Hades Fall since Zetsu grabs it during the battle phase.

Was it a fun deck? Absolutely. Was it competitive? Not even close. Zetsu was more suited for Secret Sword, Lethal Formation plays.

Buddyfight X


Japanese Blade only received one card from The Dark Lord's Rebirth. Blade Beast of Sixteenth Night, Crane Princess Ichimonji was a size 3 with 7,000 power, 1 critical and 4,000 defense. It's act would allow you to discard a Japanese Blade from the hand and if you did, you would gauge and draw. It helped in several ways: gain advantage, cycle out cards the player doesn't need and getting the "different" number of Japanese Blade in drop.

Unfortunately, she isn't the most aggressive card with her second ability only giving her 1 critical and move if there's three or more Japanese Blade in drop. On turn one, it was more common to only get 1 or 2 different Japanese Blade in drop since the player doesn't know what their gauge is at the beginning of the turn.

Not all who wonder are lost.
You're going to probably start to notice that Japanese Blades get very minimal support from here on out. LVL Up! Heroes and Adventurers only gives them one new card and it barely is used at all. The card is Vagabond, Munechika. It's a dual world Dungeon/Katana card. It's free to call and when it enters the field, the player can grab up to one item from drop back to hand and it has move. Nothing crazy and pretty lack luster for a size 2 compared to what was released in the past. Maybe run it as a 1 of to add more different Japanese Blades to the deck.

Bushiroad became generous with Japanese Blade and released two new cards in Overturn! Thunder Empire! They can finally dual weild! Exquisite Sword, Crane Princess is Blade Beast of Sixteenth Night, Crane Princess Ichimonji's items.

It can only be equipped if there is a Blade Beast on the field. This implies it must be a monster and not one of the items since none of the items have the Blade Beast attribute. It costs 1 gauge and allows another Japanese Blade item other than itself to be equipped. The downside is it's barely an aggressive card but it does help as a nice beat stick item.

The other card of the set is the blade beast for Water Slash Sword, Murasame. White Dew Blade Beast, Murasamemaru is a size 0 and free to call. Its ability is pretty expensive. When it attacks, you may equip a Japanese Blade item from drop and pay 1 life a long with the item's eqiup cost and if you do, you equip it. It's a nice way to extend the battle phase but I've never been able to make him work correctly in Japanese Blade. He's always felt a little clunky and it's potentially an expensive ability.

Same. But different.
At the end of turn, he also destroys himself which is unfortunate. I wish if he had to destroy himself, it was after battle so he could fit better in the middle of the board then when he dies, it would open the center for the items. As it stands, he has to still be on the left or right.

Driven to Disorder gave Japanese Blade gave us only 1 new card again (I hope you can sense the disappointment in my voice). Famous Blade, Kogane-chidori costs 2 gauge to equip. Its damage cannot be reduced which is... nice I guess.

Its second ability activates when you cast a spell. The player gains a gauge and for the turn, the item gains double attack and it's once per turn. After much testing, the two gauge equip cost really hurts this card. Japanese Blade monsters are pretty expensive gauge-wise. This doesn't leave much room for Kogane-Chidori to freely be played without some prior set up with Clear Serenity (or other gauge gain cards) which means his second ability is harder to activate because that's one less spell in your hand.

One minor thing I wanted to take note is that with Kogane-chidori being the first (and so far only) Thunder Empire Katana World item, it means that Batzz Stone, Pyroxene of the Thunder Empire could finally be used in Japanese Blade but I would highly advise against using it.

Buddyfight X2


Voice of the Blade was released in Buddy Legends. It is the second spell with the Japanese Blade attribute. It is a set spell that helps mitigate one of Japanese Blade's biggest weaknesses by making the gauge cost of Blade Beast (not Japanese Blades) reduced by one.

It's act is once per turn. It has the player discard a Japanese Blade from hand and if you do, you look at the top 3 cards of your deck and add up to two Japanese Blade from among them to hand. This ability really helped with the inconsistency of the deck and helped set up the drop zone.

Buddyfight Ace


Last new support was in Buddy Lineage. Purple Electric Flash, Mikazuki Munechika. Mikazuki's new form helps push the aggro the deck needed. At the beginning of the attack phase, if there's three or more different Japanese Blade in drop, all Japanese Blade get double attack and penetrate. Then, if there's five or more, for the turn, all Japanese Blade get 5,000 power and 2 critical. Keep in mind this lingers for the whole turn so even new cards called during the battle phase from Murasamemaru get these abilities.

~Last updated 7/21/2019

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Thursday, April 25, 2019

Archetype Archive: Water


Water is an interesting archetype. It is basically the red head step child of Katana World. Little supported and tended to be ignored. It usually supports both Ninjas (Ninja Arts) and Skull Warriors (Demon Way) and it will be lucky if it gets it's own standalone support. That being said, even though this list is going to be short compared to other archetype archives, the support for Water is sprinkled in other archetypes within Katana World so get deck building!

Buddyfight Season 1


Technically, Water was in Cyber Ninja Squad. I say technically because the archetype didn't have an actual play style and it was just an applied monsters with no rhyme or reason. These monsters included Loud Laugh Ninja Fugumaru, Stealth Ninja, Kirikakure Saizo, Sea-Splitting Irukamaru and Mobile Ninja, Jiraiya. The only spell with the Water attribute was Demon Way, Noroihikagami. All vanilla monsters or spells with no real cohesive play style between each other and are meant to actually support other archetypes.

I will never understand
how this card got an SP rarity
It wasn't until Break to the Future that Water actually had some semblance of a play style with White Dragon Hermit, Nanase, Cat Shadow, Aoihime and the set spell, Water Technique, Shinotsukuame. Aoihime can search for the set spell to help buff the stats of all the Water monsters. Then, Nanase can sit in the center with 7,000 attack and defense while disrupting the opponent's gauge.

Runaway Female Ninja, Yukishiro acts as a control aspect of the deck since it is a spell nullify and can be on the left or right of Nanase. Disperser of Conflagration, Shiromizuchi was a beefy size 1 but was not overall used in the archetype. Perfect Beauty, Hyoshi Shirasagi also had the Water archetype but if either were ever played, it was probably in a size 1 Skull Warriors deck.

There were some more spells were also created in the set for Water in Break to the Future. They included Demon Way, Kiribusuma, and Water Technique, Minawagakushi. Both cards helped mitigate how aggressive the opponent could be but never directly supported Water (besides attribute).

The last card that helped support Water was Moss Wall, Fudogame but even then, it was another vanilla with high defense that costed a gauge.

Overall, throughout the season, the archetype still wasn't great. You could tell Bushiroad was trying to make an archetype but it wasn't cohesive enough.

Buddyfight Hundred


The Hundred season as a whole did very little to support Water. About the only direct support cards that could be played in the deck was Third Omni Water Lord, Miseria, INV Third Omni Water Lord, Dark Miseria and Water Ploy, Kyokusuinoen.

The first two out of the three weren't even Katana World cards and the third card didn't help any current play style. So overall, there was effectively nothing new.

Buddyfight Triple D

But everything changes in the Triple D season!... is what I would want to say but the only card with the Water attribute from this season was Skull Warrior Bones of the Four Birds, "Akuten Haba" but again, there is no real cohesive strategy for Water that this card can actually do.

Bird. Bird. Bird is the Word.

Buddyfight X

Continuing on with the lack luster support, Premature Passing Bibikawazu came out in The Dark Lord's Rebirth. At this point, it was much more helpful for Skull Warriors than Water.

Once Overturn! Thunder Empire!! was released, Water finally got enough updated cards to actually be a coherent deck with a strategy. These cards were Celestial Deity of Misty Dew Water, Nanase, Heavenly Vengeance, Full-equip Kannon, and their tutor spell, Demon Way, Fresh Blood Nectar.

Same... but different
With these three monsters, they had a size 3/2/0 field that greatly controlled the opponent's gauge and field. Once these cards came out, Bibikawazu could be used to set up the drop zone for the new Nanase. Another notable size 0 run in the deck was First Omni Beast Messenger, Goishi Goma since he reduces the gauge cost of both Nanase and Kannon.

There was one more Water card in the Overturn! Thunder Empire!! set however it synergized with Blade Beast/Japanese Blade more than Water but the card was White Dew Blade Beast, Murasamemaru.

The New World Chaos set brought one new Water card but there was another non-Water card that helped the deck as well. The one Water card was Ninja Arts, Vapor Crow. It didn't do much for the deck but it does have the Water attribute.

The other card was Hundred Mechs general, CHAOS Gishingyuki. Since the size 0's in the deck are Skull Warriors and Kannon is a size 3, CHAOS Gishingyuki could be called at counter speed to the field by sacrificing Bibikawazu or Goishi Goma. Then, he would reduce in size to 0 if Kannon is on the field. Have a 10,000 power double attacking beat stick wasn't bad for the deck since it does lack offensive pressure. The deck gains a respectable amount of gauge because of Nanase so the two gauge cost isn't that bad.

Buddyfight X2


Unfortunately, the support wouldn't continue. The short X2 season had nothing new for Water.

Buddyfight Ace


Ace has graced Water with exactly one card so far for Katana World and it is a good generic card. Celestial Arts, Returning Water destroys a monster on your field to gain a gauge, life and draw a card. This is obviously meant to proc Nanase's destruction ability but it's generic enough to be an Oswira Gard clone for practically any Katana World deck.

~Last updated 4/25/2019

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