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.

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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