Monday, February 12, 2024

Archetype Archive: Bladedancer


Bladedancers (and by extension, Excelblades) are a rather unique archetype. They're a purely open center deck with an item but... you don't attack with the item. That's right. It is not a typo. You DO NOT attack with your items. What's stopping you from just attacking with your items? Well, almost every good card in the deck checks to see if your item is standing before it activates. Even the impacts. The good items do have counterattack which is... "nice" (I guess) but counterattack is considered a card effect destruction and not an attack so with all the anti-destruction effects that are rampant, I wouldn't really rely on counterattack. Also, the items have the Excelblade attribute which is important because some cards reference that attribute.

Oh, speaking of Excelblades, the impacts also have the Excelblade attribute and unlike most decks where running impacts are pure optional to try and clinch out games, the impacts in Bladedancers are absolutely crucial for the deck to function correctly. That's because they're not just any plain ol' impact. They are more like attack nullify spell cards but with more devastating effects.

If this all sounds like a weird deck, it's because it is. Let's take a look at the cards to see what I'm talking about.

Buddyfight Ace

Dimension Destroyer

Like any archetype's first printing, I'm going to split up the list between staple/good cards and niche/bad cards. So, first up is the former!

The staple/good cards:

Let's start with the very crucial item that makes the deck run. Excelblade, Godslash KANESADA costs 1 life to equip. Once equipped, you CANNOT call monsters to the center of your field. Effectively forcing you to stay open center. In exchange though, the item cannot be destroyed or returned to hand and all Bladedancers (so both the item and monsters) cannot be rested by the opponent's card effects and it has counterattack. So overall, it's a quality item with protection and somewhat helps protect the monsters and if you can get counterattack to go off, more power to you. Keep in mind this card while thinking of the rest of the cards in the archetype.

Next is the main boss monster from the set. Steelframe Swordsman, KUROGANE costs a gauge and gains a soul from the deck. He has double attack and soulguard. His ability says that art the start of each player's battle phase, if your equipped Excelblade (i.e. your item) is standing, destroy a card on the opponent's field and if you do, deal 2 damage to the opponent and gain 2 life. Pretty solid effect but I don't like that the 2 damage/2 life is dependent on the card being destroyed. That being said, it is "a card" so just choose something that can be destroyed and move on I suppose.

Going in a strange order, next we should talk about the impact Pinnacle of Iai, "Godspeed". Godspeed (as I like to call it) can only be casted if you are being attacked and your item is standing. Pay a gauge and a life. Nullify the attack, nullify the abilities of all attacking cards and destroy them. If any are destroyed, deal 3 damage to the opponent. 

Because of this card's ability to nullify the abilities of attacking cards before destruction, I give this a solid thumbs up for its destruction ability. The only real thing that could be done is if the opponent counters the impacts and casts a spell to give the attacking monsters anti-destruction immunity because then, the anti-destruction isn't coming from the monsters themselves. At this point in the game though, that kind of effect was pretty rare. 

Also, one very obvious thing that I think many people don't think of. This is an impact. It can't be nullified by spell nulls and impact nulls are few and far between. 

So now that we have the big three explained, let's talk about the support cards. First up is Forging - From Fire -. It's basically a draw two spell with a couple minor hurdles to cross. You can draw one card for having a Bladedancers on the field and then, if you have an Excelblade item equipped, draw another card. You can actually fulfill both parts of the card by just having your item equipped since the items are also Bladedancers.

Onto the first tutor for the set! Silver Orchid Swordsman, SUZU is a size 1 monster that costs 1 gauge to play. Her tutor ability lets you put up to one Excelblade from the deck to you hand. Her second skill gives her penetrate and double attack if you have an Excelblade item equipped. Coupled with her first skill, this is not a high ceiling to achieve. Being a tutor, she's obviously a staple 4-of for the deck.

Magnetic Swordsman, NEO is the other good size 1 for the deck. When he attacks if you have your Excelblade item equipped, you gain a gauge and draw a card which is not once per turn. He also has double attack, so this effect triggers twice. 

My biggest gripe with him is his gauge and draw effect are slow (triggers in battle phase instead of main phase). At this point however, due to the low card pool size, he's needed in the deck but, later on, he becomes more of just a viable option you can run if you want. What does help is most if the important things that Bladedancers do is during the battle phase so his delay in advantage isn't as negative as many other decks.

The last staple for the deck is Fusion Style, Steadfast Sequence the First... boy that's a mouthful. I'm just going to call it Steadfast from now on. Steadfast is basically the attack "null" (even though it reduces damage) of the deck. You also get 2 life and 2 gauge regardless of if it reduces attack damage so it's still just a good resource gain card. 

It might seem strange at first that it reduces damage to 0 instead of nullifying an attack but it's pretty simple. You'll want to run damage reducing cards in the deck so your KANESADA's counterattack can still trigger. If the attack is nullified, counterattack can't trigger. It also in my mind indirectly sets the precedent that your monsters are pretty expendable. They do their job and it's not a huge deal if they stick around or not. 

Next up are more niche/bad cards. At this point in the decks archetype, you would probably still need to run some of them but they are usually run at less than 4.

The niche/bad cards:

First up is Alloy Instructor, SHAKUDO which, compared to KUROGANE is just decent. He is 1 more gauge compared to KUROGANE but he provides a good damage boost (3000 power and 1 critical) and penetrate to all Bladedancer monsters if your Excelblade is standing. He's really just going to be run in the deck for consistency sake of getting a size 2 on the field. Once more KUROGANEs and tutors become available later on, he'll easily be replaced.

Rainbow Swordsman, TITAN is more like a spell than a monster. He's free to play but, in order to use his effect to grab two Bladedancer monsters from drop, you have to pay 1 gauge and rest him. 

He's just an ok card. I hate you have to call him because there might be better Bladedancers like NEO or SUZU on the field but, I suppose you could always grab them back with TITAN's effect. However, let's say you do. Cool, you just regained a card you didn't have to lose. So then, you're spending 1 card (TITAN himself) and a gauge just to grab back 1 card from drop? So you're just purposefully losing a gauge. Not every impressive.


The last monster from the set is Heavyblade Swordsman, NAMARI. His first ability can only be used during the opponent's turn and if you have a Bladedancer on the field. You call him to the field, and redirect the attack to him. His second effect allows you to grab an Excelblade from the drop when he is destroyed. Usually, this will occur once you use his first effect to call him to the field.

He suffers from similar issues as TITAN. Only being useful by calling to the field where you may have to call over one of your monsters that already on the field only to do what? Just get an Excelblade (i.e. item/impact) back? At worst, it's a 2 for 1 trade (the monster on the field and NAMARI for a redundant item). The next best outcome is a 2 for 1 trade to get your impact but that's still not a great trade. I'm sure usually you'll grab the impact (if it's in the drop) but now, your opponent knows you have the impact so they can just stall/delay in some other way. 

Of course, I'm nitpicking him at his worst and second worst but his best isn't that much better. At best, you call him to the side with no monster to call over just to grab the impact so it's an even 1 for 1 but still, the opponent knows you have the impact now and just decide to attack the monsters instead of you and end their turn. At this point, he probably would still be run in the deck regardless but he's just a necessary evil at this point.

And that covers everything from the first set!... no I totally didn't forget about Excelblade, Beastcut. It's just that bad. You still want me to mention him? Fine. Beastcut is the other item "option" (using that word loosely) for the deck but compared to KANESADA, its just objectively worse. Beastcut costs a gauge to equip which, I'd rather pay a life for KANESADA because all the monsters already cost gauge. 

Unlike KANESADA, Beastcut can be destroyed or bounced. In the case of it being bounced, cool, now you have to pay another gauge to re-equip it which is expensive. All of this mediocrity for the amazing ability to... still have the "anti-rest" ability and give all Bladedancer monsters 5000 power and 1 critical... great.

I usually try to find the silver lining to this card where maybe it would be a "cool tech" or at least a sideboard card but I really can't. The only thing I could think of was if you couldn't afford KANESADA and needed an item for the deck to run. However, this too falls flat because it's not like KANESADA is a triple rare or higher card. It's a double rare which are still very common and not expensive so, I'm not sure what the purpose of this card is. Maybe just ultimately pack filler.

Perfected Time Ruler

At this point in the deck's life, it was decent but not great. Perfected Time Ruler introduced three new cards that were all absolute bangers. Let's start with Fusion Style, Stance of Staring -Ichi-. I'll just be calling it Ichi from now on. Ichi can only be casted during either player's battle phase and if you have your Excelblade item equipped. Check top 3, put up to two to hand and the rest go to gauge and the card can only be casted once per turn. Because of its ability to be casted both turns, I think its perfectly fine to run this at 3-4 and it wont feel cluttered generally speaking. 

I was very surprised that Bladedancers already got a second impact which was shocking but in hindsight, was probably needed to keep the deck good. Excelskill of Iai, "Kamikaze" is similar to Godspeed but, Kamikaze costs 2 gauge instead of 1 gauge and 1 life so it may be "slightly" harder to pay. In exchange, however, not only does it do the usual "nullify the attack, nullify the attacking cards abilities and destroy them" BUT!... the 3 damage is not dependent on destroying anything AND!... you get to draw 2 cards regardless of anything! 

I tried to see if I should run both impacts in the deck and ultimately came to the conclusion that you should be just fine replacing Godspeed for Kamikaze. Maybe at worst, you could run a couple Godspeed to help with consistency but Kamikaze is just better in any practical way.

Conduction Swordsman, RIN is a new size 1 monster for the deck. She's free to call. As long as your item is standing, your Bladedancer monsters can't be destroyed on the left or right. She has a counter ability that for 1 gauge, she can stand a Bladedancer on the field (so they can attack again) and last but not least, if your item is standing, she gets triple attack.

With her addition, I think some of the lesser size 1's from the first set can basically be taken out of the deck. The size 1 quality is starting to get better at this point. The only downside I can think for her is her stats are pretty weak at 2000/2/1000 so you may not get the most bang for your buck with her triple attack but that's a relatively minimal downside. If you're still running SHAKUDO at this point, he'll help with this downside, but I'd almost rather still use KUROGANE.

Violence Vanity

Speaking of KUROGANE, he got a new card! Stout Gold Steelframe, KUROGANE is similar to the original KUROGANE but I think he's still slightly better but I'm getting ahead of myself. The new KUROGANE also only costs 1 gauge. He has triple attack instead of old KUROGANE which has double attack so that's nice however, the new KUROGANE only has 1 critical instead of 2.

New KUROGANE's destruction effect not only destroys but nullifies the ability of the card THEN destroys it but in exchange, you only gain a gauge and life when successfully destroyed. Unlike the old KUROGANE which lets you gain 2 life and deal 2 damage. I think the nullification of the card's abilities heavily out weight any resource gain/lost or the 1 critical lost. So basically, new KUROGANE isn't as aggressive as old KUROGANE but it more likely to actually proc its destruction effect.

At this point, you have 2 different KUROGANEs. I think most people will either get rid of SHAKUDO and run both KUROGANEs or, replace the old KUROGANE for the new one and keep SHAKUDO so there's still some more aggressive cards in the deck. I personally got rid of SHAKUDO from my deck at this point. 

Bladedancers also got a new set spell this set! Fusion Style Training Grounds, KAZIBA is a pretty straightforward set spell. All Bladedancers (including the item) get 2000 power and their abilities can't be nullified. Also, if a Bladedancer on the left or right is destroyed, you gain 2 life and the opponent loses 2 life. For a minus 1 card in hand, I think it's a pretty solid card. This card basically makes RIN pointless from the previous set too so if frees up some space for other options. Bladedancers aren't really swimming in options anyways. I'd run KAZIBA at 4 since you want it and there's no tutor for it.

Buddy Ragnarok

Buddy Ragnarok, the last set of the game, gave us... another KURAGANE?! Weird but not unwelcomed. This one is called Steelframe Swordsman, KUROGANE "HAYABUSA". To keep it distinguishable from other KUROGANEs, I'm just going to refer to this one as Hayabusa.

Hayabusa costs 2 gauge but, it does get 2 souls so I would say its justified. This version also gets to keep his 2 critical. Hayabusa prevents your Excelblades from being destroyed or leave the field by your opponent's card effects. Hayabusa also has penetrate, triple attack and soulguard. All solid effects. Hayabusa's main effect completely gets rid of the destruction effects the old KUROGANEs had. Instead, at the start of each player's battle phase, you gain 2 life, burn your opponent for 2 life and the opponent's cards MUST attack if able. 

This doesn't sound like a special effect but in the past, people would sometimes just stall the game by not attacking the Bladedancer player and just destroy his monsters in hope that the Bladedancer player would just deck out since the deck wasn't very aggressive anyways. So yes, this mandatory attacking is much more useful than it may initially sound. Sure, they may decide to still attack the monsters first but then they have to attack the player and that's when you can use Kamikaze.

Young Alloy Swordsman, SHAKUDO is a surprisingly welcome addition to the size 1 lineup. I didn't realize this until writing this but he is the younger version of Alloy Instructor, SHAKUDO. He has a slightly strange call cost of putting a Bladedancer from drop to his soul but its not a high bar to reach and it has soulguard for that soul.

His first effect makes the opponent burn for 1 more damage when your Excelblade (so, just impact in this case) deals damage to the opponent. So that's 4 damage now from your impact. 

His second effect is that when you deal damage to the opponent by card effect (so either the KUROGANEs or the impacts), you gain a gauge... and this is NOT once per turn so it helps recoup the losses from the more expensive cards. Overall, real solid for the deck.

― KABUKI MAI ― is a pretty straightforward tutor spell. Pay 2 life to grab a monster with KUROGANE in its name and up to one Excelblade and add it to your hand. The 2 life cast cost is super nice to keep the gauge available to call KUROGANE. The Excelblade tutor works for both the item and impact so you can grab whichever one you're missing. 

If you're missing both, grab the item first. If you have the item but not the impact, grab the impact. If you have both, just get another impact! Also, now that Hayabusa forces the opponent to attack, it doesn't really matter that they know you have the impact.

Last but certainly not least from the set is Excelblade, Godslash KANESADA -SIN UCHI- which is basically a straight upgrade to the original KANESADA. For clarification purposes, I'm going to refer to the original as KANESADA and the new one as SIN UCHI.

SIN UCHI has quite beefy stats at 13,000 power, 1 critical and 10,000 defense! It costs 2 life (instead of 1 life like KANESADA) but you also can put up to two Excelblade or Bladedancers from drop into its soul and it has soulguard. Like KANEDASA, SIN UCHI doesn't allow monsters to be called to the center and all Bladedancers (including itself) can't be rested or have their effects be nullified. 

I do want to note that SIN UCHI doesn't have the anti-destruction effect like the origianl KANESADA does but it does get 2 souls and Hayabusa has the anti-destruction/anti-bounce effect so very rarely will you struggle with it being messed with. 

Lastly, it has counterattack but its more than just counterattack. Normally with counterattack, when a link attack happens, you can only destroy one card in the link attack. When SIN UCHI's counterattack triggers, all monsters in the link attack are affected by counterattack. At this point, counterattack is a pretty weak effect because despite its name, it's an effect destruction. Not a battle attack destruction. Regardless, its a nice little bonus but I wouldn't rely heavily on it.

Promos

There's only one promo for Bladedancers and that's Fusion Assist. Fusion Assist can only be casted your item is standing. Pay 1 gauge and choose one of the follow two. The first is that for the turn, Bladedancers on the left and right cannot be destroyed. The second ability is to give a card on the opponent's field -3 critical. 

Overall, I'm pretty indifferent about this card. It's not straight up bad but doesn't make a huge impact for its cost. The issue I have with the first ability is that your monsters can't be destroyed for the turn at all. Whether by battle or effect which, if Hayabusa is on the field, is a detriment because instead of the opponent attacking the player directly and giving the Bladedancer player the chance to use Kamikaze, he can just keep attacking the indestructible monsters and nothing bad happens. I think protection against effect damage is more crucial than protection against all forms of destruction.

The second effect isn't bad but, by this point, you're already at least running 4 Fusion Style, Steadfast Sequence the First and 4 Excelskill of Iai, "Kamikaze" impacts. I'd rather use the Pinnacle of Iai, "Godspeed" impact if I really, really needed more defense than Fusion Assist. Even then, there's also a few other defensive options that I think are better than Fusion Assist and Godspeed if you truly needed another defensive card which you can look at below.

Honorable Mentions & Staples

Alright, next is the honorable mention cards. These are cards that are not directly Bladedancer support but still work at least decently well. Whether as a spicy tech or a staple card in the deck or somewhere in between.

Honorable mention cards in no particular order:


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

Keep in mind, for the staples list, I try to keep it limited to just Bladedancer/Excelblade specific cards. Do I think Guardian Electrobeast, Goryou is a staple for the deck? You bet I do but I don't like to truly recommend staples outside of the archetype itself because decks can be built a million and one different ways and I don't want to overwhelm people with a super crazy list of staples from all across the game to make players feel like they HAVE to get certain cards. If you see my recommendations, read the card and agree, that's fine. If you disagree, that's fine as well. I know people tend to look at cards with a competitive lens but some people just want to have fun so I try to accommodate as many people as possible. 

I personally am someone who doesn't like to tell people to do things. I want to give you the pieces of the puzzle with maybe a small reason on what I think of a card and I want you to have fun putting the pieces together to see what fits and what doesn't for your deck and playstyle. Plus, everyone's locals and meta are a little different so what I say works for my locals might be pointless for yours.

That's about it. Due to the limited number of cards for the deck, I think this is a more simple/straightforward deck to build but still enough options to make it fun and see what does and doesn't work. Hope this helps you and have fun building and testing your deck!

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