The Strategy Behind Spell Nullifies

This article is something I've been wanting to do for a while. It's something that I feel hasn't been really touched upon in Buddyfight. I'd like to get around to monster nullifies as well but for this article, it will be on spell nullifies.

When I talk about spell nullifies, I'm taking about the ones that are 2 gauge/life and nullify an opponent's spell. Such examples are Demon Way, Sakurafubuki, ...Or So the Dream I had Went, Breathen Gard and Abra Cadabra! and there's a couple in Star Dragon World but you get my point. There's also Secret Sword, Star Crusher, and Runaway Female Ninja, Yukishiro but for the sake of consistency, we'll be focusing on the former spell nulls.

What are you willing
 to sacrifice for victory?

People tend to over look or forget about these cards for good reason. Two life or gauge is quite a bit as a cast cost. Especially to just stop your opponent from playing a card and that's it. No gauge or life regain, no draw after the nullify. Nothing. Why is that?

Well, anyone who has even played a game or two of Buddyfight will notice that this game isn't designed for players to counter every move your opponent makes or have cards to counter every feasible possibility. The main world that is meant to have this design and philosophy is Katana World.

The design of Buddyfight from the get-go is one where you can call your own powerful monsters to battle your opponent's monsters and whoever has the stronger monsters win. It's honestly the best way to sell a game and people psychologically prefer to increase their own power to beat someone instead of bringing others down. It brings games to a satisfying climax.

That's probably why spell nullifies in this game aren't thought of too much when players design their decks. Coupled with the fact that the spell nullifies are 2 life/gauge, people would rather spend that on other monsters, spells, items or impacts to bring them out ahead and I can't blame them.

So why? Why play spell nullifies?

The simple answer is the phrase "A stitch in time saves nine".

Of course in this situation, we're not talking about fabric ripping and sewing it before it gets worse. We're talking about Buddyfight. In this case, some spell cards in this game are so powerful for decks to function or work, that nullifying them and sacrificing immediate life/gauge now will save you hassle to victory later.

I wish my dreams were half this exciting

This doesn't mean put 4 of the appropriate world nullify into every deck and start nullifying the first spells that your opponent plays. Some cards are more important than others and it can takes practice to know when to play spell nullifies.

There's several situations that can justify a spell nullify being played:

• The card you want to nullify would stop you from winning the game

• The card being nullified's cast cost is expensive.

• The card you want to nullify is how the engine of the opponent's deck starts.

• Your opponent's spell would slow down or stop your own deck's engine from going off

In some situations, nullifying a spell can be because of several bullets at the same time. Let's break down each of these situations down one by one.

Bullet 1:

The first bullet is mainly in regards to shield spells during attacks. This is probably the most common use of spell nullifies and is easily recognizable when you should do this. If your opponent has 6 life and you have a spare 2 gauge/life for your spell nullify, you can do a link attack with your monsters/item to do 6 critical or more at once at your opponent to bait out a shield spell. Then, nullify the shield and win the game. Since the counter chain in this game only goes up to two, your opponent can't play another card even if they wanted to and you win the game.

EDIT: Since the beginning of the Buddyfight Ace season, the rules have been changed where multiple spell chains can now occur during an attack declaration. This bullet is still valid. It's just the last sentence in the paragraph above isn't true anymore. 

Bullet 2:

The second bullet is the toughest to distinguish in games for players. Remember that when a spell is nullified, your opponent must pay the cast cost before you can nullify their spell. In Buddyfight, usually the more expensive a card's cast cost is, the more worth while it is when it activates successfully. It ups your opponent's risk of resource loss if the spell is nullified but if it's successful, they get a bigger pay out. So at what cast cost would it be worth it to nullify a spell outside of battle?

You have the power.
Do you know how to use it wisely?

If your opponent has to expend just as much resources if not more than the nullify, chances are that it's good to nullify. Remember that you are playing a card to nullify and your opponent is playing a spell card to that's a 1 for 1 wash. It now comes down to what you and your opponent are willing to lose together and who can come out ahead more by the loss. Keep in mind that gauge and life are pretty much interchangeable.

Let's look at a good example first and then one bad example of nullifying a spell. We'll work with Demon Way, Sakurafubuki in my Skull Warrior deck since it's more relatable dealing with life instead of gauge. I was playing against a Jackknife Drum deck.  My friend played Sky Dragon Divinity to draw two cards. In this situation, I nullified the spell to slow down his draw engine and limit his options. Later on in the game, he mentioned that he didn't have a whole lot of options and I eventually won.  I was able to get one, maybe two more cards out of him with Companion Katana of Magatsu, Yamigitsune and I won.

In this situation, the draw spell would've kept his draw engine going but we both took -1 card loss and -1 in overall resource loss (1 gauge and 1 life for 2 life). Without more options, he didn't have a way to sustain his board or have defenses for my Skull Warriors to deal damage to him.

So now a bad example with Sakurafubuki.  I was facing a Demongodol deck and my opponent played Raging Chained Strikes on a monster with 2 critical to give it double attack. I also had no monsters on the field and no nullifies in hand. In this situation, it would've put me at a disadvantage to nullify the spell because at the end of the turn, the outcome would've been the same whether I nullified the spell or not. I would be minus 4 life but by not nullifying the spell, I could charge and draw out the Sakurafubuki because my life was at 2 which made it a dead card.

This comes to my last point about the second bullet. Spell nullifies don't need to be played and sometimes they are useless in the current situation of a match and it's OKAY to charge them away. Spell nullifies don't always come to you in the best moment.  Don't try to make it work if it just hurts you more in the long run.

Alakazam!

Bullet 3:

The third bullet relies on knowing what cards are crucial for your opponent's deck to get to their optimal game state. This requires some prior knowledge on how certain decks run. Some cards that are free to play would be good to nullify in certain decks.

One example of this would be Hyper Energy in a Card Burn deck. Since you know that Card Burn requires 4 gauge for it's ability to go off, nullifying Hyper Energy can really stunt your opponent's deck from going off.

Another example that also incorporates bullet two is Great Fate Frozen Stars. Nullifying it alone makes it a wash no matter what spell nullify you play but couple it with the fact that it is the engine of the deck is just icing on the cake.

Bullet 4:

This one does have some relation to the Great Fate Frozen Stars example above but the easiest example would be Skull Warriors, and Demon Way, Sakurafubuki. Shields normally stop the Skull Warrior engine of wanting to rip your opponent's hand out so nullifying shield spells are more crucial for them to do their job. Especially since Skull Warriors plus even harder after nullifying the spell and making your opponent's cards in hand essentially "nullified" by making them discard them.

-

So that's pretty much it. I hope it may enlighten people to try spell nullifies in their deck. The 2 gauge spell nullifies are harder to work with in decks because gauge is used so much to call monsters, cast spells, etc. Hero World probably has the easiest time using a spell nullify that uses gauge since they have Hyper Energy. It is feasible with Legend World since they have Darkness Rune and The Hard Working Fairies as well but it's not as much gauge accel. Not to toot my own horn but the best spell nullify is probably Demon Way, Sakurafubuki. Life isn't used much in this game for cost requirements and this leaves your gauge alone to call all your normal monsters onto the field but this does make Sakurafubuki a dead card when you only have 2 life or less.

Crushing hopes and dreams one spell nullify at a time

Oni Assassins After Release

It's been a while. A little longer than I was expecting but I had some personal things to take care of and analyzing Oni Assassins took longer than I expected to fully digest.  I'll admit. Oni's took me probably a solid month to have an idea of how they worked and even then, I needed to analyze them for about a month or more longer to fully get used to them. My general prediction on how good they would be was pretty right on so there won't be too much to talk about. They're been getting in top 8 pretty consistently recently and for good reason. They have counters for practically every deck.

Strike swiftly.  Strike silently

Through my own trial and error and how others built them, I think I understand them well enough. After all, I got 12th with Oni's in New Jersey so I can't be too far off. Honestly though, that's not out of any special talent on my end. Oni's are a strong deck and have a lot of ways to slow your opponent down during their turn. What I found surprising is people are looking at interesting card options that weren't really thought of as good before their inception to reduce their threat level. Such as Gate of Dragon. Obviously this card doesn't stop Red Lady Oni, Kureha or Oni Boss, Kid Ibuki but it does stop the smaller Oni's from coming to the field.

Oni's are a pretty intricate deck. More intricate than I originally thought they would be. For a while, whenever my friends and I played Onis, the matches would take almost the full time limit because of how slow and sure we had to be playing the deck. One thing I realized was that to play Onis well, you must use their effects to hinder your opponent's progress. To play them effectively, you have to know many aspects of counter timings and play timings to maximize their effects.

Know when to strike and
victory will surely be yours

Let's take an example of what I mean from the finals match at Toronto, Canada. It was between my friend Josh (who was playing Sun Dragons) and Austin Somers (who was playing Oni Assassins)

Josh had Sun Stone, Bal Flame equipped. It was Austin's battle phase and he had some Onis on the field and one had at least one soul. Austin goes to attack Josh and Josh plays Sun Dragon Shield to stop the attack.

Austin counters his shield with Underhanded Means, Sneak Attack to destroy Josh's item. Josh out of habit started to try to counter and remove his item to reduce the damage he takes next time by 2 but he didn't have any counter timing left to use the ability so the item was destroyed.

This honestly blew my mind for a couple reasons. First, I've played against Josh's Sun Dragon deck a lot and I've always just accepted the fact that he will always be able to get Bal Flame's effect off whenever he wanted because it's counter and there's no special requirement to activate its effect. I never thought of the limited counter chain in this game to my own advantage. Sure I've seen people occasionally counter and play Clear Serenity whenever I call a monster or cast a spell but it never really dawned on me why they were doing it.  It's to assure they'll get 3 gauge without the potential of their card being nullified.

If you're good at something,
never do it for free

Second, it set in stone, in my mind, how absolute Underhanded Means, Sneak Attack, Apex of Ambush and Optics Operation, Shrouded Strawcoat can be. If you wait for the right moment, you use the spell at an opportunity when you're opponent thinks they have a crucial card on the field and has ways to keep it alive. One example of this would be playing against Stars. If your opponent has Great Fate, Frozen Stars on the field with Stars on the left and right that can't be destroyed, wait for them to call a monster, cast a spell, etc and counter it with Underhanded Means, Sneak Attack.  Your opponent won't have the counter timing to cast Shield of Knowledge, Tetra Vibrion on Great Fate, Frozen Stars to keep it alive.

One other thing that surprised me is how the deck needs more than 50 cards in the deck so you don't deck out. Executioners and Hyakugan Yamigedo decks need more than 50 cards because of the nature of their play style but I didn't expect it from Onis. Oni Assassin decks seem to need about 55-60 cards in the deck. The deck does a lot of drawing, gauging, milling and searching so the deck needs some buffer from potentially decking out. This works well in Oni's favor since all the Oni Assassin cards are pretty solid.  My deck has 60 cards and I don't feel like I ever get a watered down hand.

To finish this up, I feel a little concerned about the future of how good Oni Assassins will be. Obviously they shouldn't be top tier forever but there's already a lot of cards coming out soon for different decks that either keep cards on the field from being destroyed or prevent cards from being called back from the drop.

I feel that Onis will still be good since they have a lot of flexibility but my concern with that will be my favorite deck: Skull Warriors. The side board cards coming out that prevent cards from being called from the drop will probably bring Onis down a notch or two but Skull Warriors don't have as much flexibility. Sure they have access to Demon Way, Sakurafubuki and Ceremony of Excorcism but they already struggle just to get their board going that spell nullifies/destruction cards won't help them get going in the long run. It's an unfortunate side effect of Onis being a real threat but I can't blame people.

Toronto Trip and my Deck Profile

So after a crazy week after the Toronto regionals, I finally can start writing about going.  It was a great time.  Got to say hi to Joel (from HunterSerge), Austin Somers and a couple people who read my blog. It's always great to meet people in the community and chit chat. My friend Josh got second place with Sun Dragons which was cool. I'm so proud of him.  It just seemed like yesterday I sucked him into Buddyfight.

I didn't do great in the tournament (2-4) but I wasn't playing a good deck or one I was expecting to do well with anyways.  I just wanted to troll with people especially since Oni Assassins are so hot right now. People were expecting them when they saw my Katana World sleeves. People gave me some weird looks with this deck. I went with the below deck because I wanted to mainly trade with people and take it easy and while I tried to win, I didn't want to go try-hard.  I mainly wanted a mini vacation and have fun.

The deck I ran was Skull Warriors but it didn't revolve around discard Yamigitsune...

...or draw Yamigitsune...

...or any Yamigitsune...

In fact, my deck revolved around Skull Warrior Birds of the Four Bones, "Akuten Haba".

Bird is the Word

Here's the deck profile for "Bird is the Word":

Buddy: Undying, Benishojo

Size 0:
3x First Omni Beast Messenger, Goishi Goma

Size 1:
3x Aftermath, Gagaku
2x Blood Knife, Kimensai
4x Demon Kid, Hiunmaru
3x Godly-Speed, Natsubame
4x Lightning Speed, Tsukiusagi
4x Retainer of the Demonic Dragon, Resurrected Dragon Bones
4x Snake Princess, Setsuna
3x Undefeatable, Setsujishi
4x Undying, Benishojo

Size 2:
4x Cat Shadow, Aoihime

Size 3:
3x Revelation Tactician, Keiganryu
3x Skull Warrior Birds of the Four Bones, "Akuten Haba"

Spells:
3x Hundred Demons Sorcery, Kyakaryouran
3x Odd Ritual, Skull Festival

Sideboard:
3x Barbed Wire
3x Ninja Arts, Half-kill
2x Perfect Beauty, Hyoshi Shirasagi
2x Strength Summoner, Kotenso

So anyone will notice this is just a casual "funny" deck especially since there's 44 monsters and only 6 spells in the deck. This deck has some reach on damage that people don't expect since it's not hard to mill 4 Skull Warriors with this deck. Plus, since the buddy is Benishojo, people just expect Yamigitsune to be in the deck somewhere. Benishojo is perfect for buddy in this deck because of the milling.  It makes him always available.

I make my own luck

The overall point of this deck is to mill for the impact monster then grab it back with Resurrected Dragon Bones. If you don't see the impact monster, then you can try to stall with Revelation Tactician, Keiganryu. First Beast Messenger, Goishi Goma is there to help reduce the call cost of the Akuten Haba and Keiganryu.

Cat Shadow, Aoihime is in the deck to grab Odd Ritual, Skull Festival out so the only spells left in the deck are Hundred Demons Sorcery, Hyakaryouran and with the deck being devoid of most spells, you'll almost always hitting Hyakaryouran successfully to gain life back and keep using Odd Ritual, Skull Festival. Lightning Speed, Tsukiusagi is meant to be your other "nullify" in the deck and he fits perfectly in it.

Undefeatable, Setsujishi is in the as a way for me to recoup my losses if my opponent didn't get to 6 or less life in my turn. If my opponent got to six or less, I could call Akuten Haba but if I didn't get there, I could try again next turn and put Skull Warriors to my gauge instead. Then I could use that gauge for Lightning Speed, Tsukiusage if I needed to.

I did originally run Demon Way, Arakuyou to draw off of the summon of Akuten Haba.  Since Akuten Haba says "destroy 1 or more Skull Warriors on my field", you just board wipe (or keep a size 0 alive) and draw 3.  It's pretty nice but the point of the deck is to try to finish.  It doesn't have much longevity to it.

In the side board, the spells were meant to replace Hundred Demons Sorcery, Hyakaryouran for spell nullifies more appropriate to what I was facing.  The monsters could just really be added in after the first match to fill it with more monsters. One thing to note with Perfect Beauty, Hyoshi Shirasagi. She nullifies the penetrate of the monster that attacks it for the TURN. So if a monster has double attack and penetrate and kills her and she nullifies the attacking monster's penetrate, you can safely counter call Lightning Speed, Tsukiusagi on the second attack and not get penetrated. It never happened to me but it's there and I'm sure it would blow someone's mind when it happens to them.

Improvements:

*ribbit ribbit*

One card I didn't have a chance to try in the deck was Premature Passing, Bibikawazu because I was having consistency issues which costed me games. He could search out literally anything for the deck for the situation I'm in. I could throw Akuten Haba in drop and grab him with Resurrected Dragon Bones. I would probably take out Aftermath, Gagaku for Bibikawazu.

I thought of running 4 Akuten Habas but if I run Bibikawazu, I don't think I need 4 Akuten Habas.

I was trying to fit in a Skull Warrior with move but couldn't find space. I just called monsters to the center anyways. No item fit the deck so there's no real reason to have a monster with move.

I thought maybe Boy Transformation, Yamigitsune for the deck since he fits in it the best but the Skull Warriors during the battle phase would more than likely hit and activate Boy Yami's once per turn ability before Akuten Haba entered the field. Plus, I was trying to make the deck not have any form of Yamigitsune in the deck and see what would come out of it.

Hope you guys enjoy this novel idea. Decks like these give flavor to card games. They're funny and unexpected but they still work and when it works, oh boy is it scary. 6 damage out of "dumb luck" milling isn't expected.

Oni Assassins Before Release Predictions

...we all fall down

Oh-boy so it's here.  My article about Oni Assassins. This was an awkward article to start writing. I usually play an archetype before even writing an article on them so I at least feel like I know what I'm talking about. In this situation though, I'm going to write a before and after article. The before article will be how the cards seem to work and what my prediction on how strong they'll be is. In my after, I'll give a "screw all the theories and my predictions are garbage. This is the best way to play them" to help new people figure them out a little easier. As you can probably tell, this is the before article and I'm fully prepared to be completely wrong in my predictions.

I honestly don't really know where to start with them so I guess we'll start with the overall concept. I think Bushiroad had a meeting, looked at Art of Explosive Hades Fall and said "Guys. This face down soul idea has potential" and BOOM the concept of Oni Assassins were basically born.

Remember this flavor text as you
play against Oni Assassins

Oni Assassins have a line up of monsters, spells, items and impacts that work together to psychologically mess with your opponent and stop them from reaching his/her full potential during their turn with the red text ability called Ambush. Ambush states "When this face down card is put from the soul of a card on your field into your drop zone, you may call it by paying its [Call Cost]".

By having the cards face down in the souls, your opponent can only have an educated guess as far as what could be underneath a card's soul. This can make your opponent potentially misplay as they expect a certain card face down in the soul but never shows up or fall right into your trap and have their plans completely backfire. We'll start off with the above mentioned card: Art of Explosive Hades Fall.

I have massive respect the power of Art of Explosive Hades Fall because of the mind games it adds to the fight. Secret Swords and Hades Fall were the classic mind games of Buddyfight and one reason why I like Katana World so much. It wasn't getting much use recently until Blade Beasts got Blue Secret Sword, Zetsu. With this weapon, you could recur Hades Fall for more control and more damage. Along with the fact that there are size 1-3 Blade Beasts, you can get Hades Fall's (almost) full potential in Blade Beasts.

If you think Hades Fall works well in Blade Beasts (which it does), be prepared for the insanity that can ensue with Oni Assassins. Oni Assassins are a multi-size deck. Where Ninjas are mainly size 1's and 2s and Skull Warriors are mainly size 1s and 3s, Oni Assassins have viable monsters ranging anywhere from size 0 to 3. Hades Fall will be a great searcher for the Oni Assassins that have Ambush. Your opponent will call a monster, get it blown up by Hades Fall and then because the monster was face down in the soul and sent to the drop, they get called to the field.

Every card in their arsenal are counters to some kind of situation. Does your opponent have an item? Blow it up with Half-fiend, Kid Yase. Multi-soul wall in your way? Call Dusk Fiend, Yagyo to get rid of them. Does your opponent have Judgement of the Cold-Blooded King, Miseria in the center? Call Oni Boss, Kid Ibuki and tell him to eat 13 damage (10 from lifelink and 3 from the Ambush call). Want a good all around counter destroy card spell?  Play Underhanded Means, Sneak Attack.

You've come to the wrong neighborhood

The Ambush skills aren't limited to just the monsters either. Their spells have the attribute <Assassination> and boy do they have some stupid good spells. Let's start with their draw spell Hiding Oni. It's almost a clone of Artificial Talisman: GAUGE & DRAW. You put a card from the soul of a card on the field into the drop. Then you gauge 1 and draw 2. It's a completely win/win situation because it procs Ambush. The other favorite of mine is the set spell House of Assassins, Oni Convoy. Once per turn, just put a card from your hand into the soul of an Oni Assassin and draw a card.  Free cycle and free setup on the field.  Super good.

What blew my mind is that there are a couple spells that activate if they're sent as a face down soul into the drop zone. The two main ones are Under the Hood and Essence of Ambush. This concept blew my mind. I never thought Bushi would do something like this or even think of this. Under the Hood gives you resources back to set up for more Ambushes and Essence of Ambush helps destroy monsters on your opponent's field.

They are getting two items as well which have the Oni Assassin attribute so you could put cards face down in their souls but I don't think it will be common to do that. The two items are of course Dark Arms, Steel-slicing Strings and Dark Arms, Soaring Blade. They have opposite effects to each other. The former sets up your field for the future by putting cards face down in souls and giving you gauge. The latter capitalizes on Ambushing by destroying more monsters on the field when Ambush goes off. I think it would be wise to use one over the other based on what kind of deck you're making but it might be good to splash 2 of the off hand weapon or so in a deck.

Another weapon that may see some use in Oni Assassins is Ninja Blade Chirizakura. It could be used on the Oni Assassins that have soulguard. At your own leisure destroy an Oni Assassin and call the monster or cast the spell that was in the soul.  Just a thought.  I doubt it will be used this way though.

Oni Assassins don't have any impact monsters (yet) but they do have a very strong impact card. Dark Skill, Eerie Wailings  has two effect options.  The first option is for you to fish (and compress) your deck by grabbing two cards and put them face down into the soul of an Oni Assassin. The second option is essentially another attack phase because you put all souls from all cards on your field into the drop. Just do the second effect after your first set of monsters attack. Remove all the souls and attack again.  That could be a lot of monsters and a lot of critical to swing with.

No waifu, no laifu

So what do I think Oni Assassins will do to the meta and will they be top tier?  Well in truth, this deck has the potential to be extremely good. It depends on several factors. First, I think the sideboard will be crucial for Oni Assassins. Most other decks can have the option of creating a side board but I think the sideboard will be basically essential.

Second, the meta and deck being played against has to be assessed correctly to maximize the effectiveness of cards. If you're putting a size 1 or 2 in the soul of Hades Fall against Raging Spirits, you deserve to lose. Mindlessly putting cards face down into soul probably isn't the best idea.

Third, which kind of ties in with the second point, the deck has a little more of a higher skill cap to it because the player playing the deck has to be competent and predict the opponent's moves with good counter measures not just once but multiple times. This is something that may not be familiar to some players that play less counter heavy decks or play more brute force decks.

Oni Assassins seem to have this eb and flow to them where you can do some counters during your own turn but should reserve souls and effects for during your opponents turn to trip up your opponent. If you burn everything during your turn, you won't be as effective during your opponents turn. The point of this deck seems to want to control your opponent's actions during every step of the game. I feel this deck will generally speaking be easy to learn. Hard to master.

Now go! Control and conquer your opponent!

Common Rulings and Misconceptions #2

So before I begin, yes, I know I haven't done any post about Assassination Demons. I've been putting it off until we know all the cards that they're getting in set 1 of Season 4. I don't want to make 5 different posts about every single card that comes out. I don't have that much free time.  I'm going to make one big post about my thoughts on them.  Generally speaking, I do find them interesting and I like what I'm seeing. I want to see the full picture of them before posting.

But anyways, let's get onto ruling number 1!

Ruling #1: Monster Call-over Cost Clarification

I don't blame people for legitimately not understanding this misconception. It's finely worded and people don't tend to think further into the wording. The misunderstanding is what happens to a monster on the field when a monster is called on top of the monster on the field and when a monster on the field is put from the field into the soul of the monster you're calling.

So let's start with the first one.  The most common card that has a call over call cost is Silhouette Joe, "Illusion Shadow Dragons". Let's print out the call cost:

Ninja Arts, Half-kill: Not the hero we deserve but the hero we need

[Call Cost] [Pay 2 gauge & Put this card on top of a《Shadow Shade》monster on your field & Put a spell from your drop zone into this card's soul] 

So when you put the monster you're calling over a monster on the field, a couple things happen:

1. The souls that were in the original monster on the field stay in the soul of the called monster (in this case, impact Joe).
2. Joe cannot be moved to a new zone on the field because that's not where the original creature you put Joe over is located.  You cannot call impact Joe on top of a monster on the left and decide to move him to the center for example.

The second call cost example is Mikazuki Munechika, "Forbidden Art Blade Deity Descends!".  Let's go over his call cost:

Sorry, but you cannot add all of Onimaru's souls into this guy

[Call Cost] [Pay 3 gauge & Put a 《Japanese Blade》 from your field into this card's soul]

So in this case, the following things happen:

1. The souls that were in the original monster on the field do NOT get transferred to Mikazuki Munechika.  They're send to the drop zone. The monster on the field is leaving the field to go into his soul. You cannot activate soulguard to keep the monster on the field because the call cost won't be successful and then you couldn't call the impact monster in the first place. 
2. The Mikazuki Munechika impact monster can be called to any space and can be called over other monsters on the field. You are not restricted to where you want to play him because you are not restricted to where the monster on the field is located.

So as you can see, both kinds of call costs have their pros and cons and they're actually opposite of each other.

Ruling #2: Different Kinds of Defensive Spells

This one is usually taught early on to new people but I feel like this would be an injustice if I didn't touch upon this. Not including counter destruction spells, there are 5 different ways to defend your monsters and precious life points from attacks and they all have their pros and cons:

1. Nullify the attack
2. Reduce damage
3. Redirecting attacks
4. Resting monsters
5. Defense boosting cards

Nullifying:

Nullifying the attack stops the attack from finishing. They are the most common defensive spell. Typically, nullify spells have an abstract requirement such as the attack not being a link attack or no monster must occupy your center to nullify the attack. Star Dragon World's nullifies also have the requirement of the player must be the one being attacked in order to nullify it.

Pros: 

• The monster being attacked doesn't get destroyed so Penetrate and Spectral Strike don't activate and on-damage/on-destruction abilities don't activate as well. 

Cons:

• Abilities that activate upon declaring the attack still activate.

• The monster attacker doesn't get in battle with the monster being attacked.  Therefore, counterattack doesn't go off. 

• Some cards abuse your opponent for using nullify spells such as cards saying "this card's attack can't be nullified if it is attacking alone" or "if this card's attack is nullified, deal 1 damage to your opponent".

• Does not stop spells from dealing effect damage.

Reduce Damage:

Reduce damage spells tend to reduce damage by X amount. Typically it's 2 but the Dungeon World one reduces by 3 but that one has another call requirement that the reduce by 2's don't have to balance it out. 

There is also a better version of reduce damage spells that are typically referred to as Chillax clones. Typically, they have a call cost of 1 gauge.  They then reduce the next time you would be dealt damage to 0 and you gain 1 life.

If an effect goes off by dealing damage (Like "To Darkness", "Sense Synchronization", etc) to the opponent and the damage gets reduced to 0, the effect does not go off.  Yes you "hit" the opponent but no damage was dealt.

Pros:

• Penetrate, spectral strike and other effect damage can be reduced by these kinds of spells.

• Chillax clone spells absorb all the damage from a direct link attack to the player. Link attack critical damage is done all at once. However this is different with penetrate/spectral strike damage which I will explain below.

Cons:

• This should be obvious but unlike nullifies, reducing damage doesn't stop your monster from being destroyed in a battle.

• Doesn't stop counter attack

• While penetrate/spectral strike effect damage can be reduced, it only reduces the damage from one card's penetrate/spectral strike within a battle.  So for example, say you have a monster in the center and your opponent calls 2 monsters with penetrate. One with 1 critical and the other with 2 critical. The 2 monsters link attack your center monster. You can play a Chillax clone in response to the battle declaration but you don't reduce all 3 critical damage. Your opponent chooses in which order his monster's penetrate goes off. So logically, he would send the 1 critical damage to be reduced to 0 so then the opponent gets hit with the 2 critical.  Penetrate and spectral strike damage is dealt in parts.  Not at once. 

• Doesn't stop upon attack declaration effects

• There are some cards that say "This card's attack can't be reduced" but this isn't too common.

Generally speaking, reduce damage by X spells aren't as good as nullify spells because their usefulness is static and limited. Would you rather be attacked by a monster with 3 critical, reduce damage by 2 and still take 1 damage or just nullify the whole 3 damage?

Redirecting Attacks:

Redirecting attacks do exactly what they say.  They move the target of the attack to somewhere else. Most say to redirect the attack to another monster but there is one for Fifth Omnis that redirect the attack from a monster to the player instead.

You'd have to be a fool to use this

Pros:

• As of writing this, there are no cards that say "This card's attack cannot be redirected".

• You can redirect a whole link attack.  Not just one monster in the link attack

Cons:

• Several redirect cards (such as Lightning Speed, Tsukiusage and Rescue Dragon, Mach Braver) call a monster to the center to absorb the attack.  This means penetrate/spectral strike can still activate.

• To continue on with the above mentioned cards, if you call those cards to the center, obviously the center monster must be sent to the drop as well because something else is taking its place.

• Don't stop spell cards dealing effect damage

Resting Monsters:

In order for a monster to attack, they must be rested (turned sideways).  If they are already rested, they cannot attack. Typically, you should rest a monster at the counter-timing of entering the battle phase.  That way, your opponent can't call over them during the main phase. Also, don't rest a monster when your opponent declares an attack.  The monster gets rested for his attack before your counter timing to rest it.

The three most common resting spells are Ninja Arts, Snake Gaze, Stop Right There! and Barbed Wire.

My locals hate this card 

Pros:

• Stops double/triple/quadruple attacks

• Virtually no monster says it can't be rested by card effects.  The only exception that I know of is Pinnacle of Martial Arts, Duel Jaeger "God Vortoise".

• Stops attack declaration effects from activating.

• Stops link attack effects from going off.

• If you have a monster with high defense in your center and your opponent plays a size 3 and a couple size 0s, resting the size 3 can "essentially" nullify the size 0's attacks as well if they can't hit your defense.

• Stops penetrate/spectral strike

Cons:

• The call cost for some of the cards requires life so the spells aren't effective on 1 critical monsters and you can't cast them if you're at 1 life without losing the game.

• Resting spells exclusively rest either monsters or items.  

Defense Boosting Cards:

Boosting a monster's defense to be higher than the attacker or attacker's combined attack keeps your monster on the field. Nothing more happens if the attack power of the attacking monster is less than the defense of the target. Defense boosting cards can also work on items that have defense. This typically happens on cards you Ride or Transform into and is mainly prevalent in Hero World.

Also, fun fact, if the player does not have an item with defense and they're being attacked directly, no battle occurs.  This is why all monsters have a value in defense. Even if that value is 0 (from stat-reducing effects).  This allows a battle to happen. Weapons don't have a defense of 0, they are devoid of any value.  Including 0. Don't get confused and think I said that no ATTACK happens.  An attack can happen but it's possible for it to not be a battle.

Burn baby burn!

Pros:

• Most stat boosting spells have a free cast cost.

• Better used on cards with high defense to bait link attacks.

• If the monster being attacked has higher defense than the attacker(s), the defending monster doesn't get destroyed.  Ergo, penetrate/spectral strike doesn't activate.

• Justice Will Prevail! can be used on transform/ride items. Because your item will obviously survive the battle, you get to counterattack a monster in that battle. 

Cons:

• If you don't have a monster on the field or an item with defense, stat boosting cards do little to actually defend you.

• Stat boost cards are a waste if the attacker has more attack than the defender's defense after a stat boost card is activated on the defender. 

Ruling #3: Counterattack Rulings

This is the rapid fire counterattack rulings sections!

Think of this card when reading
 ruling #3 bullet 2 

• Counter attack is mandatory. No exceptions.  Pretty straightforward but there can be times when destroying a monster by counterattack can backfire and people might try to weasel their way out and say they choose not to use counterattack.

• A monster being destroyed by counterattack is regarded as effect destruction.  Not battle destruction.  Therefore, penetrate doesn't go off if the counterattacking monster also has penetrate and destroys a monster in the center.

• This also means if monster A counterattacks monster B and monster B also has counterattack, monster B's counterattack doesn't go off.  Counterattack only activates after surviving a battle. Not effect destruction. Bushiroad probably did this so it wouldn't be a chain reaction of back and forth counterattack.

Ruling #4: Monsters Called to the Field by Effects

Monster calling nullify spells (like Begone!!) cannot be used on monsters that are called by card effects. So monsters called with spells, like Return to the Underworld, and monsters that are called by their own effects, like Lightning Speed, Tsukiusagi, can't be nullified with Begone!! clones. 

Don't ask me why this is.  My best guess is the process of calling monsters via effects is different than the process of calling from hand and therefore, there isn't a counter timing to nullify the monster being called.

Ruling #5: INV Second Omni Demon Lord, Death Asmodai's Effects

This one is in regards to when Death Asmodai gets destroyed and his lifelink and monster call effect occur. Both effects happen at the same time, therefore, the player chooses in what order each effect happens.

Usually this doesn't affect anything significant but if you're playing fifth omnis, for example, you can hope to get a monster on the field that gives you a benefit to taking effect damage first, then take the lifelink 2 since lifelink is regarded as taking damage.

The only one-off situation I can think of is if you're at 2 life (so the lifelink would kill you). You can hope to mill your buddy and buddy call to gain a life before taking lifelink 2.

Again, nothing significant but it can mean the difference between life and death in some games.

-End Rulings Section-

To wrap things up, I think I'm going to do future rulings and misconceptions in sets of 5. It seems like a healthy amount to read in one sitting. Also, if you have any rulings you're curious about that I haven't touched on, feel free to leave a comment and I can get to it in the next set of Common Rulings and Misconceptions!

Current Skull Warrior Deck Profile (2/11/2017)

This post is sort of a continuation of my last post where I was comparing Ninja Blade, Chirizakura with Fiendish Blade, Urahonekui. If you didn't see that post, click here to read more!

I'm not a huge fan of deck profiles because they don't teach people how to make decks and experiment for themselves but I figured this was over due and I promised it in my last post.

So let's get into the list:

Sorry for the light to the right :(

Buddy: Undying, Benishojo

Size 1:
4x Undying, Benishojo
4x Evil in Heart, Yamigitsune
3x Demon Kid, Hiunmaru
3x Godly-Speed, Natsubame
3x Treachery, Jakikarasu
3x Yamigitsune, "White Fire Shigaisoshi!"

Size 2: None

Size 3: None

Items:
4x Ninja Blade, Chirizakura

Spells:
4x Return to the Underworld
3x Odd Ritual, Skull Festival
4x Clear Serenity
3x Demon Way, Jugonrensa
4x Demon Way, Oborogenbu
4x Demon Way, Kasumienran
4x Demon Way, Arakuyou

Well first thing's first, the deck only has 20 monsters.  I have a hard time finding more Skull Warriors to put in and the ones I have in are the better available Skull Warriors. I don't run Snake Princess, Setsuna because half of my Skull Warriors have call cost and that just isn't efficient. If she didn't require call cost to be paid, I would more than likely play her. I guess you could try to make her more worthwhile by replacing Treachery, Jakikarasu with Diversion Troublemaker, Bakemujina but I don't like having 4000 power between two monsters on the field. Plus, she's not a permanent solution to resurrecting your monsters every turn.

Good buddy material here

The overall plan is to equip Ninja Blade, Chirizakura, call Treachery, Jakikarsu off to the left side, a self-destructing monster to the center and either another self-destructing monster or a Yamigitsune card to the right. The order of attacks can vary depending on your opponent's field but after your center monster attacks, sacrifice him to attack with Ninja Blade Chirizakura. Then, during final phase, kill the non-Jakikarasu monster on the side and call the impact Yamigitsune.  If you only have self-destructing monsters on the field when you call impact Yamigitsune during the final phase, you can call him to the center if you need some more defense. Then, you can call them all back with the Demon Way set spells.

I'm going to replace Evil in Heart, Yamigitsune with the discard Yamigitsune when he comes out. Yamigtisune or Benishojo could be the buddy in this deck.  I like Benishojo more since he's easier to call back and I'm replacing Yamigitsune later. Plus, Benishojo as buddy acts as a reverse Demon Kid, Hiunmaru the first time you call him from drop.

I originally had Revelation Tactician, Keiganryu in the deck but when I had him, the deck was a little too gauge heavy. At one point, I did have Retainer of the Demonic Dragon, Resurrected Dragon Bones in the deck with Keiganryu but without Keiganryu, his size 1 counterpart is pointless. Also, Keiganryu can't be resurrected with the set spells so any other way to call him back is super gauge expensive.

You might be concerned about the consistency of drawing Ninja Blade, Chirizakura but you can get the weapon pretty consistently with all the draw monsters and spells in the deck. Same thing with the set spells. Cat Shadow, Aoihime isn't really needed and the fact that she's size 2 messes with the formation you're going for.

Other monster cards I considered for the deck:
Blood Knife, Kimensai
Diversion Troublemaker, Bakemujina
Kalavinka, Uguisukomachi
Lightning Speed, Tsukiusagi
Strength Summoner, Kotenso

Other spell cards I considered for the deck:
Art of Body Replacement
Demon Way, Geppakugiri
Double Loss
Hundred Demons' Tome of Judgement
Ninja Arts, Snake Gaze

I don't plan on doing deck profiles often but I figured it was justified trying to show people how to work with Ninja Blade, Chirizakura. I'm interested in the Assassination Demons that are being shown but I hope Bushiroad keeps supporting Skull Warriors even with this new archetype and don't think they can just replace them. I'll make a post once we know more about them other than the fact that they have a new red text ability called Raid.

Weapon Comparison: Urahonekui vs Chirizakura

So I decided to write and compare these two weapons because these two weapons have three things in common:

1. They don't directly coincide with Japanese Blades/Blade Beasts decks since neither of them have that attributes.

2. They both want to be able to attack even if you called a monster to the center during the main phase.

3. The cards are very open to be generally used in any deck.

So, I wanted to compare each one and see if they're currently viable in Ninja, Skull Warrior or Water decks.  Let's start with Fiendish Blade, Urahonekui and what it does.

Urahonekui translates to backbone eater.
That's pretty dark.

Fiendish Blade, Urahonekui

Power: 3000

Critical: 2

Equip Cost: Pay 1 gauge & pay 1 life

This card can attack even if there is a monster in your center

Urahonekui has the same base stats as the vanilla Katana World weapon Ninja Blade, Kurogachi. So then, we can assume the ability to attack through center has a value of 1 (.5 paid through gauge and .5 paid through life). This is understandable since Bushiroad wants the game to have a risk vs. reward aspect.  They want players to have the risk of being directly attacked for having a weapon equipped and being more aggressive. Being able to attack while having a monster in the center makes the player too safe and to justify this, they make the player use up resources. 

One thing this weapon doesn't help that normal weapons innately deal with is that any deck that runs this card is still susceptible to penetrate. So you could expend resources to use this card and still come behind if your opponent pentrates your center monster.

So let's look at how it can work in the Ninjas/Skull Warriors/Water.

Ninjas: I've seen some people use this weapon which is understandable. You can attack when you have size 1s on the field and many decks (including mine) run INV Second Omni Demon Lord, Death Asmodai so you can (hopefully) discard Ghoul Deity, Gojinmaru and freely call him. It also helps get down to 5 life so you can use Raiton, Art of Stored Electricity.

Is this what they called shock therapy?

I don't run this weapon personally in my deck. Water Slash Sword, Murasame works fine for me and helps control reducing my life a long with being able to discard them for the Tsukikage & Byakuya "Chaotic Nano Art of Body Duplication!" impact monster.  It's up to the person's play style and each weapon is pretty interchangeable.

I find the card slightly inefficient in Ninjas just because Gojinmaru has move and so the "attack through center" ability becomes a useless skill.

Skull Warriors: I think Urahonekui was meant to be used in Skull Warriors.  Classic size 1 Skull Warriors always have Evil in Heart, Yamigitsune in the center so this compliments the line up and lets the deck be a little more aggressive.

I have a couple issues with the weapon in Skull Warriors though. The first issue with the size 1 line up uses gauge and life to recall their monsters and so the resource usage is pretty heavy.  Skull Warriors don't have a lot of free resources with the constant recalling of their monsters with the set spells so sometimes I feel like you hurt yourself more with this card than it helps

The second issue is the size 1 Skull Warriors suffer from having average power where the deck requires link attacks to attack big monsters and this weapon doesn't help.  I mean sure, it can be used in a link attack for the extra 3000 power but that isn't a lot.

Water:  Sadly, there isn't much to say. The weapon could probably do well in this deck since Water is about having good attack and defense on the monsters with the water set spell and having a closed center. Unfortunately though, Water is so under supported, I shouldn't consider it an archetype anymore. Maybe we can get something in Season 4 but it was a cute idea for the Break to the Future set and didn't get much farther than that.

So let's move on to Ninja Blade, Chirizakura

Which weapon is the actual ninja blade?

Ninja Blade, Chirizakura

Power: 2000

Critical: 2

[Counter][Act] During your attack phase, destroy a monster on your field. If you do, for this turn, this card gets power +5000!

There's a lot going on with this card so I'll keep this as clear and understandable as possible.

So let's start with its stats. It has 1000 less than Ninja Blade, Kurogachi. The ability is interesting. Destroying one monster makes this card a wash. Its attack would become 7000.  You could argue that then, the base stats could be 3000 and the destruction would be 4000. It's a reduction in initial power but a boost in power with each monster you sacrifice. This is the same concept with Tempest, Garo-oh that I talked about and why I liked Garo-oh over Gale Conflagration, Amakujaku

If you're going to sacrifice any monster, it would be the center monster. You can attack with the monster in the center, destroy it and then attack with the weapon. This card is actually amazing. You're losing nothing because you get to attack with the center monster and then you can still attack with the weapon at 7000 power which Skull Warriors have a hard time hitting without using Strength Summoner Kotenso or link attacking.

Also, this ability isn't once per turn. After one destruction, it hits that quality 7000 power. After two, it hits 12,000 power.  You can link attack with two monster to try to kill a 10k defense monster like the Asmodai Omni Lords.  If that gets stopped, kill them both and try again with just a single attack.

Also, unlike Urahonekui, this card is free to play.  Sure you need to sacrifice a monster in the center to attack with the weapon (which would be -1 in resources) to get this card up to its base potential but the point of the center monster is already done if you destroy the monster after battle. This card is more bang for your buck without essentially losing anything.

Just like every other weapon other than Urahonekui, this weapon does cover the penetrate issue I mentioned above.

So let's look at Ninjas/Skull Warriors/Water

Ninjas: I've never seen Ninjas run this weapon and to be fair, they don't really need to. Gojinmaru is about shadow diving so excessive power doesn't accomplish this goal. Currently, it's about keeping Gojinmaru on the field for as long as possible to shadow dive your opponent as much as possible.

Skull Warriors: This weapon is amazing.  Absolutely amazing for Skull Warriors.  It's a hidden gem that I feel like no one has really looked into.  I'm not saying that no one has tried it with Skull Warriors but I find this weapon 100% needed for Skull Warriors to get that extra bit of damage to end the game or get a big weapon to bring down a 10k+ defense monster.

He's got your back. Or is it your front?

If you're worried about your center being open, don't worry.  First of all, your defense spells work fine with open center. You have Demon Way, Oborogenbu and Demon Way, Kasumienran which fits perfectly with the play style. If you're still worried about leaving your center open though, run a mover. Either Diversion Troublemaker, Bakemujina or Treachery, Jakikarsu will do the job.  Call them off to the side during your turn. I like Jakikarasu more since you get better stats and essentially a vanilla stat monster with free move if you use one of the Demon Way set spells to call him back.

It has so many synergies with Skull Warrior spells as well. Kill your own monster and proc any spell that can be played after a monster is destroyed. Demon Way, Geppakugiri, Double Loss and Water Ploy, Kyokusuinoen all work. The one that works the best though is Demon Way, Arakyou. Draw 3 after the monsters have attacked and you blow atleast 2 of them up. Your opponent doesn't have to destroy your own monsters to proc these and that's what makes these cards so good with this weapon. It's controlled destruction to get even more bang for your buck from your Skull Warriors.

There is literally no reason to not run this deck in Skull Warriors. Lets count all the things we get for calling self-destructing monsters and killing them ourselves. For 1 gauge/life per monster (we're assuming your using the Demon Way set spells) and calling a full size 1 field, you get:

1. The monster's attack.

2. Any call from drop effects (e.g. Godly-Speed, Natsubame/Demon Kid, Hiunmaru on enter abilities).

3. +5000 power onto the Weapon for their destruction which in turn means...

4. High quality 7k/12k/17k attack weapon.

5. Bait counter destruction during battle.  Kill your own monster when your opponent uses a counter spell to destroy your Skull Warriors. You get the last say in their deaths and they essentially waste a spell.

6. Proc on-destruction spells. My personal favorite is Demon Way, Arakyou. It's for pretty much free and you start the cycle all over again.

7. You don't get penetrated. You have an open center or if you have a mover on the field and they call a monster with penetrate, don't move the monster to center. Force your opponent to choose to attack your monster or you.

When you're killing monsters that are already doomed to die at the end of the turn, it makes it a trivial downside that you have to destroy your own monsters with the weapon. This play style is aggressive. It can essentially get 4 consistent attacks a turn every time. 3 monsters on the field and the weapon attacks for high numbers. That's a lot of attacks your opponent has to deal with and I doubt they can keep up with their defenses and it gets resurrected with the set spells.

The new discard Yamigitsune will make this deck even better once it comes out.  Think about it. Your opponent will use his nullify/counter destruction cards on your attacks.  Once you break through his defenses, attack him directly and make him/her start throwing his hand away.

What's even better is your overall level of defense isn't much less than before.  With the movers I mentioned earlier, you still get that closed 1000 defense center. Just like before.

Sorry for the wall of text on this part but there was a lot to talk about with this weapon.  I seriously hope Skull Warrior players have a new view on this card start trying out in their decks. I'm going to post a deck profile of my current Skull Warrior deck soon with this weapon next to give everyone an idea of how to build the deck.

Water: The weapon is not even useful for Water.  There's no water monster with move that syngergizes well. Again just too under supported to be super useful.  It has some synergy with Water Ploy, Kyokusuinoen like I mentioned before but the point of Water is to have a high defense monster in the center and to destroy the monster just to put it back to your hand doesn't keep your defense up. Of course Water has always had close relations with Skull Warriors so who knows?  I honestly might be missing something but until Water gets more support, I've put them on the back burner for now.

As you can probably tell, the main pointers I wanted to cover with the two weapons were for Skull Warriors. Katana World has had their weapons freely usable for any archetype but the Japanese Blade weapons have pretty much made their home with Blade Beasts so I wanted to look at these non-Japenese Blade weapons and analyse their uses for the rest of the Archetypes.

I hope this article was a little eye opening and have people try different play styles with the above mentioned weapons. Especially Ninja Blade, Chirizakura. I'll be posting my Skull Warrior deck with the weapon next to help give you guys an idea of what their play style is better.