Common Rulings and Misconceptions

So this wasn't meant to be the next post.  I actually wanted to talk about what different effects are worth in the game and then about sideboard but after browsing through the NA Buddyfight group on Facebook, I realize there are somethings in this card game that are still confusing to newer people because I see a lot of questions repeatedly asked in the group.

I wanted to post some common rulings and misconceptions here so if people in the future aren't sure about a situation, maybe my post can help.  I plan to expand upon this post in the future when new cards with weirder effects occur. Veterans may already know all of these but who knows.  Maybe you'll learn something new!

Now get these right or Teachmodai
has a backdrop with your name on it.

Ruling #1: Card Effect Names

This is the question that if I got a nickel every time someone asked, I could buy a play set of every card in Buddyfight.

The situation is the confusion between when card effects have names (such as Cyber Analysis on Electron Ninja Shiden) and when that card says "This card's ability only activates once per turn" or "<Skill Name> only activates once per turn".

This combination of text can be separated into three unique situations

Situation #1: Card has an effect with no name AND at the end, it says "This card's ability can only be used once per turn".  

Example of this card:  Return to the Underworld

Ruling:  When a card like Return to the Underworld is played, the once per turn reference is that *points at the card* physical card on the field.  This doesn't apply to all Return to the Underworld set spells on the field.  This means you can activate multiples of that set spell on the field without an issue.

Situation #2: Card has an effect name AND says "This card's ability can only be used once per turn".

Example of this card: Electron Ninja, Shiden

Ruling: This ruling is the same as above even though it has a name.  It's this physical card's ability that can only be used once per turn.  That means that you can call multiple Shidens and use each of their abilities.

Situation #3: Card has an effect name AND says "<Effect name> can only be used once per turn".

Example of this card: Red-eyed Succubus

Ruling: This ruling is different than the above two.  The once per turn clause is going deeper into the card than just the physical card.  It's pointing to the actual effect name.  So you can't activate multiple cards with this effect because that unique effect with that name has been used.

I chose the Succubus and Shiden for the later examples because both card's effects are the same but because the once per turn clause is different, it means Succubus's effect can only be used once per turn while Shiden can keep drawing you a fat hand if you keep playing him.

Ruling #2: Boy Transformation, Yamigitsune's ability

You're so misunderstood little boy

This card has caused it's fair share of misplays for newer players of Skull Warriors.  Let's copy and paste his ability here for the sake of easier analysis:

"Sense Synchronization" When a 《Skull Warrior》monster on your field deals damage to your opponent, you may put that monster from your field into your drop zone. If you do, deal damage to your opponent equal to that card's size! "Sense Synchronization" only activates once per turn.

People are treating his ability as if it's the exact same as Evil in Heart, Yamigitsune's ability.  While it's similar, it's still different and it's a minor thing that matters a lot.

Boy Yami's ability activates as soon as damage is dealt to your opponent. It doesn't matter whether you want to actually send the Skull Warrior to the drop or not, his ability activates.

"But Billeh" you may say "The same thing happens with normal Yamigitsune and I can choose when I want to use it".  You are correct random stranger in my head.  But there is a major difference.

Since Boy Yami states "Sense Synchronization can only activates once per turn, you can choose not to send a card to the drop and that's fine.  But Sense Synchronize already activated and as such, you can't send another Skull Warrior to the drop later on in the turn.

A common example is this:
>You play Boy Yami

>You play Thunderclap, Goraiko and deal the 1 damage upon entering the field.

>Boy Yami's ability activates now.  You can choose to send Thunderclap to the drop or not.  If you do, you deal 2 damage with Boy Yami's ability.  If you don't, the ability still activated and can't be used again.  Even with another Boy on the field because it's a named ability that's only once per turn.

You cannot deal 1 entrance damage, attack with Thunderclap and then try to Sense Synchronize for 2. Sense Synchronize already activated.

In other words, if you don't his ability, you lose it.

Ruling #3: Counterattack and post-battle effects

Ziun is number one.
Therefore Skull Warriors are number one.

I haven't seen anyone have this question but this happened locally and we were confused as far as what happens until we looked deeper at the rules.  The situation is as follows:

>Boy Yami and normal Ziun are on the field.

>Star Guardian, Jackknife is in the center with a soul in him on your opponent's field.

>Ziun attacks Jackknife and the opponent plays Speculight Ring.

>The attack (along with the penetrate) goes through (8k attack vs 8k defence) and deals damage to your opponent.

The  question becomes this: Does counter attack from Jackknife occur before or after Boy Yami's Sense Synchronize activate?

The answer is the counter attack from Jackknife goes off first.

In the rulings, counter attack is still apart of the battle.  There is no play timing yet for Boy Yami's effect to go off.  Your opponent kills Ziun.  Then Boy Yami's effect activates but because Ziun has already left the field due to counterattack, there is no target for Boy Yami's ability and therefore, no additional damage can be dealt AND this also means Boy Yami's effect has activated and can't be used for the rest of the turn.

Ruling #4: Demon Way, Geppakugiri

The rulings behind Demon Way, Geppakugiri even surprised me when I looked it up.  This card has some interesting play timings that not a lot of cards have.

The first ruling with this card is that during your opponents battle, you may cast as many Geppakugiris that you want from your hand.  Reason being is that when your monster is destroyed, a play timing occurs of monster destruction.  At this point, you can counter and use Geppakugiri.  Then it goes back to the play timing of a monster being destroyed and you can cast another.

The second ruling is that if your opponent destroys your monster during their main phase, you cannot cast Geppakugiri immediately. You have to wait until the next counter timing and here's an example:

Situation:

>It's your opponent's turn and they have a Black Death Dragon, Abygale on their field.
>You have Electron Ninja, Shiden on your field and a Geppakugiri in your hand.
>Your opponent uses Abygale's ability and destroys Shiden.

You do not have a play timing for Geppakugiri after a card's effect resolves during the opponent's main phase but Geppakugiri can be cast as a counter to the first instance of an action taken by your opponent that does not refer to the destruction of that monster.

So if your opponent decides to play, let's say, Abyss Symphony, a counter timing occurs which allow Geppakugiri to be cast and you can kill Abygale.  Unlike the first ruling above, you can only cast one Geppakugiri in this counter timing.

Ruling #5: Art of Explosive Hades Fall

... they all fell down

This one is in regards to when a monster enters the field with an on-enter ability and Hades fall activates at the same time.  Generally speaking, the monster called still gets to use its on-enter ability. The card was successfully called so the ability activates.  Then Hades Fall will activate and destroy the monster.

The only way the on-enter ability can be nullified is if the call itself is nullified with Begone!! or one of the other clones of the card in other worlds.

Also do keep in mind that normal [Act] abilities on monsters (like Shiden) do not get a chance to activate when the monster gets destroyed by Hades Fall.

Ruling #6: Gojinmaru's call cost

This section is about a couple things with Gojinmaru but it can also apply to other cards that have a call cost of putting monsters on the field into the soul of a new, summoned card.

The first question is: "During the counter timing of calling Gojinmaru onto the field, can I cast a Death Grip (or equivalent counter destruction card) to destroy Byakuya or Tsukikage to stop Gojinmaru from entering the field?"

The short answer is no. During the call, the counter timing is after the call cost has been paid.  At this point, Tsukikage and Byakuya are already off the field and in the soul of Gojinmaru.  You can't counter destroy Gojinmaru at this moment either because he isn't on the field yet.

The second question is: "If I cast Begone!! on Gojinmaru, does Byakuya and Tsukikage along with the gauge cost go to the drop?"

That answer is yes.  The call cost was paid so the gauge was paid and the ninja brothers are in Gojinmaru but Gojinmaru's call was nullified so everything goes into the drop.

Ruling #7: Destruction of cards

Pray for your life points

Buddyfight cards rely a lot on wording to determine if certain requirements are fulfilled for something to activate.  Destroying a card is not the same as putting a card to the drop zone. So lets run down a list of some common events that occur in this game related to that:

1. Evil in Heart, Yamigitsune's "To Darkness" puts the card to drop.  So cards like Demon Way, Geppakugiri do not proc off of it.

2. Demon Way, Arukuyou procs off of any destruction of Skull Warriors. Even if you do it.  That makes it very easy to proc.  Especially with Yamigitsune, "White Fire, Shigaisoshi" and Skull Warrior Bones of the Four Birds "Akutenhaba".  The latter allows you to destroy as many Skull Warriors as you want. So if you have three size 1's on the field, don't destroy just one and put the rest to drop for size rule, just destroy them all then you can use Arukuyou to draw three.

3. Putting cards to drop because of call over or size rule do not constitute as destruction.

4.  Calling a card on top of another one like Bal Dragon, "Bal Burst Smasher!!" is not considered destruction either.

Ruling #8: Lifelink

This one is pretty straightforward but I wanted to be clear with everyone on Lifelink. Lifelink is damage.  So any abilities that proc off of taking damage do go off with Lifelink.  Lifelink occurs whenever that creature leaves the field.  Literally whenever.  Obviously there can be cards like Dragon Kid, Ricky who nullify lifelink of Raging Spirits but here are some examples just to lay it out in plain English:

• Calling over because of size rule
• Calling over a monster to take its position on the field
• A monster destroyed by an attack and sent to the drop zone.  Lifelink doesn't activate if the monster destroyed has a soul and Soulguard is used to keep it on the field.
• Bounced back to hand (e.g. Magical Goodbye)
• When you put the card with lifelink on the field into the soul of another card, you take the lifelink damage.  The monster is leaving the field to go into the soul of the monster you're calling.  Souls are not on the field. 

An example of this is Billion Knuckle, "Spirit of the Chief!" being called on top of Leadbanger. You will take Leadbanger's lifelink. He left the field to go into Billion Knuckle's soul. Now Ricky can nullify that lifelink damage but if he's not on the field, you're taking it.

Resources

Resources

What constitutes a ritual as being odd?

I remember when I was researching Skull Warriors very early on in playing Buddyfight.  The Skull Warrior deck I borrowed to start playing this game only had Return to the Underworld as it's set spell. So when I came across Odd Ritual, Skull Festival, I was ecstatic to find another set spell that resurrected Skull Warriors. After reading the card though, I grew this odd hatred towards the card. Ever since I played Yu-gi-oh as a wee one, I always had this aversion to pay for effects or monsters in the form of the resource that keeps you in the game.  After all, what happens if they rush you out of nowhere and you need the life points to live.  What then?  I would be dead.

It took me way too long to realize how amazing Odd Ritual, Skull Festival actually is and an even sadder amount of time to realize that I could keep using it to resurrect Cat Shadow, Aoihime and keep getting more set spells.  I'm not kidding.  I was playing this game for probably a solid 6 months before I realized it.  

If anything, paying to use abilities and call monsters through life is actually more preferred in Buddyfight and most card games.  Why is that?  I'll get back to that in a while.  First though, let's establish what our resources are in this game.  

Also before I go into anything, I did summarize a lot of the articles about resources from Blaze's articles into this article.  Then I expounded on it a little.  Again, if you want to read more, go here.

The four general resources in the game are the cards in your hand, your gauge, your life, your drop zone and your deck.  These seem pretty obvious so let's go through them and I'll explain them in further detail.

Cards in Hand

This one is pretty obvious.  I mean it's the basis for not only Buddyfight but for practically every card game.  I like to say as a general rule of thumb that if you have no cards in your hand, then you are practically dead.  Think about it.  If you have nothing in your hand, you have no control over the situation and your opponent knows exactly what you have. This makes it very easy for your opponent to know what the best course of action is both psychologically and strategically. You have told your opponent everything.  It doesn't mean that you will lose the game though.

In this game, cards have a resource value of 1. So for example. Drawing a card is a +1.  Placing a card on the field is a -1 from hand but is a +1 to the field so it balances out where you're not losing anything. When a monster goes from the field to the drop zone through battle, that's a -1.

Gauge

Another obvious resource. It's usually used as a payment cost for items, spells and monsters. Gauge is generally considered a resource value of .5.  So when you charge and draw, you're giving yourself +.5 advantage.  By this logic, 2 gauge is equal to 1 card.  Also by this logic, since 1 card in payment cost is 4000, that means that cards with 1 gauge cost have about 2000 more stats or an ability that cost that much. Paying through gauge subtracts your gauge advantage but it tends to translate into something more useful whether it's extra stats or an ability.

Also, gauge has some pros and cons as a resource:

 Pros:

1. You are able to easily gain one once per turn through charge and draw.
2. Gauge doesn't tend to be destroyed by effects from your opponent.  It's generally speaking a reliable resource.
3. Having no gauge doesn't mean you lose the game.  You might ask what I'm talking about here but just roll with that thought for now.

 Cons:

1. Gauge is usually paid quite a bit between spells, items and monsters and you don't start with a lot.
2. No gauge means that cards in your hand with gauge costs are useless.

Katana World in general has evolved into a gauge heavy world.  It's partially why Clear Serenity breaks the 1 card = 2 gauge rule and Katana World gets some of the best gauge ramp cards in the whole game.  Between Clear Serenity, Raiton and Cloud Billow, you shouldn't have gauge issues.

Life

Your blood in Buddyfight.  The thing that everyone wants and no one wants to give up. Once you hit 0, you lose the game.  A simple enough concept.    Life is also considered .5 advantage.  This also obviously means that payment through life tends to give you about 2000 more stats or an ability that is valued at 2000 stats.

Just like gauge, life as a resource has its pros and cons too.

 Pros:

1. Life isn't used as cost as frequently in any world other than Ancient World and even then, it's after the monster dies as Lifelink and not an initial pay cost so a lot of times, you don't actually pay the Lifelink cost.
2. Most of the time, you can pay the life cost of a card.  Obviously the exception is if you're at 1 life (or two for Sakurafubuki) but more times than not, you have enough life to pay for a card.

 

Cons:

1. You are not able to easily gain one life per turn.  In fact, most decks are only able to easily gain 1 life and that's through buddy gift but this isn't a consistent way to gain life per game.
2. Life is very easily lost because your opponent.  It's the whole point of the game.  As such, life is valued more than gauge.
3. No life means you lose the game.

If you compare the pros and cons, the gauge cons are the life's pros and the life's cons are the gauge's pros.  This is why both resources can be valued at the same amount.  Bushi does tend to value life "slightly" more than gauge though because they have to make it enticing for players to use it as a resource.  

To finish off what I was saying earlier, this is why Odd Ritual, Skull Festival is a better card than Return to the Underworld.  It has the same mathematical payment but you can choose from size 2 or lower instead or size 1 or lower. Obviously the downside of the card is that if you have one life, the Odd Rituals are dead on the field but they help mitigate gauge cost.

I would honestly only grab 1 maybe 2 Odd Rituals at the most with Cat Shadow though especially since Skull Warriors have very little life gain. You want to mainly use Return to the Underworld with Cat Shadow.

Also, there is a weighted difference with effect damage.  Effect damage is weighted as .75 and not .5. It's usually not noticeable but Bushi wanted to weigh effect damage a little "heavier" than the critical of monsters.  They wanted there to be more resources needed to be used to deal effect damage. Bushi wants this game to be about battling your opponent.  Not who can whittle down their life down to zero first.  Especially since you can burn a lot turn 0.

If effect damage was weighted the same as life (.5), it would be too easy to burn someone down. Especially since people don't use the White Dragon Shield clone or Chillax clone cards that much. That's what the above cards are used for.  They're normally used to mitigate effect damage.  The White Dragon Shield clone isn't used much because attack nullifies are better. The chillax clone is pretty useful though. It works on both effect and monster damage.  Plus in a game where cards that say "this cards attack can't be nullified" is starting to become a little more prevalent, Chillax is becoming more useful.

Drop Zone

This isn't used by every world and this is starting to be expanded upon by several worlds. In Katana World, Skull Warriors tend to use this resource the most to call back monsters.  Some use it as a measure to give your monsters more abilities. Some noticeable archetypes that do this are Blade Beasts, the new Black Dragons and the not yet released Executioners. Most worlds and archetypes consider cards in here "dead".  Meaning there's no way to grab them back to use them again.

I currently don't know if mill effects (when cards are put directly from the deck to the drop zone) are weighted any certain way.  I have to do some testing to figure that out. Unfortunately, my life is all forms of chaos right now so I can't really do it right now.

Deck

Last but not least, the deck you draw cards from.  Once you don't have no more cards in your deck, you lose the game immediately.  I've always found that rule strange but it's usually not a big deal for virtually any game.

Opposite to the milling of cards to the drop zone, I'm not sure if excavating (putting cards from drop back to the deck) has any advantageous value.  Bushi is just starting to do these effects so we'll have to wait and see.