Relatively speaking, Bladedancers/Excelblades don't have a lot of support. It's enough to make a solid deck (unlike some archetypes *looks at Water*) but there's not enough to have much variety in their playstyle. I made the deck intending to try to make it the best at what it can be. A control/burn deck.
Like usual, if you'd like to watch the video on the deck, check it out below:
Buddy: Steelframe Swordsman, KUROGANE "HAYABUSA"
Monsters:
3x Silver Orchid Swordsman, SUZU
3x Young Alloy Swordsman, SHAKUDO
2x Nanomachine Ninja, Tsukikage "Re:B"
4x -KABUKI MAI-
4x Forging -From Fire-
3x Hiding Oni
3x Fusion Style, Stance of Staring -Ichi-
4x Fusion Style Training Grounds, KAZIBA
4x Fusion Style, Steadfast Sequence the First
4x Recover Veil
1x Demon Way, Sakurafubuki
Main Deck
The general gist of the deck isn't anything out of the ordinary for a Bladedancer deck. The goal of the deck is to force the opponent to draw with KUROGANE because many times, the opponent doesn't want to attack but KUROGANE will force them to attack. In the mean time, they'll be taking damage from various cards. Let's do a card-by-card.
Young Alloy Swordsman, SHAKUDO - The main size 1 you'll want on the field. His call cost is to put one Bladedancer from the drop into his soul. Keep in mind, this can include spells as well.
His first effect increases damage of Excelblade cards by 1. This only counts towards the impacts.
His second effect gives the player a gauge when the opponent is dealt damage by card effects. This can come from not only the Excelblade impacts but from any other card. Also, keep in mind this is not once per turn. He's a real solid gauge gain card.
Nanomachine Ninja, Tsukikage "Re:B" - This one might seem odd but there's a reason. Tsukikage is in the deck for consistency. He won't be on the field very long. He's a floater. You can think of him as a couple wild cards for either SUZU or SHAKUDO so the deck technically has both 5 SUZU and 5 SHAKUDO.
You have neither card? You can get both and discard a card from hand. You have 1 but not the other? You can grab 1 of each and discard the extra copy. You can search for a SUZU and SHAKUDO and you'll be all set for both getting at least the item and having your preferred size 1.
If push comes to shove, you can also use his discard ability to keep either himself or KUROGANE on the field. It probably won't usually happen but it's an option if you absolutely need KUROGANE on the field.
Guardian Electrobeast, Goryou - At this point, I don't think I need to introduce her. She's in almost every deck I run. Goryou is just a free consistency card. I run her at 4 to maximize consistency. Worst case, if you have too many, just discard her for Tsukikage or charge and draw her. There's no real downside to her. She is also a monster that will not stay on the field very long. Usually being called over by KUROGANE
When he's on the field, Excelblade cards cannot be destroyed or leave the field by the opponent's card effects. Between this effect and SIN UCHI's souls, the item shouldn't be easily destroyed.
His next effect is quite long. At the start of each player's attack phase, if your item is standing, gain 2 life, deal 2 damage to the opponent and for the turn, all of the opponent's monsters MUST attack if able. This is nice because many times, the opponent will call monsters and just pass turn. Hoping to draw into a solution later but with this, they can't stall. Also, remember that if SHAKUDO is on the field, you would also gain a gauge but you would NOT deal 1 extra damage due to SHAKUDO because KUROGANE is not an Excelblade.
To finish him off, he has penetrate, triple attack and soulguard. All solid effects.
Excelblade, Godslash KANESADA -SIN UCHI- - The best sword for the deck. Pay 2 life and put up to 2 Excelblade or Bladedancer cards into its soul. Doesn't matter if it's a monster, spell, item or impact.
It's downside, like all other Excelblades, is that no monsters can be summoned to the center.
The next effect says all Bladedancers on the field cannot be rested and their abilities cannot be nullified by the opponent.
The counterattack is different than normal. 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 destroyed by counterattack. This effect, while sounds good, won't be very impactful because counterattack is considered effect destruction and not a battle so, all the anti-destruction will keep this effect from occurring very often.
Ultimately, the point of this card is its beefy stats and is what's needed for several cards to get their full effect.
Forging -From Fire- - The draw spell for the deck. Basically, draw a card if there's a Bladedancer and then if there's an Excelblade, draw another card. Keep in mind that just having the weapon equipped is both a Bladedancer and Excelblade.
Hiding Oni - Another alternative draw spell for Bladedancers. It costs the soul of a card on the field to gain a gauge and draw 2 cards. Because SIN UCHI and KUROGANE both can have a few souls, you can send one soul to the drop to gain a gauge and draw two.
Fusion Style, Stance of Staring -Ichi- - Another consistency card. Because this card is slower (it can only be casted during the battle phase), it's going to probably be used more for finding attack nulls and the impact. It's also a nice resource gain for players to be able to actually cast the impact.
Keep in mind, you can grab UP TO two cards to hand. If you need the two gauge for an impact in your hand, you can just grab one card and gain 2 gauge instead of grabbing 2 cards and putting 1 to gauge.
Fusion Style Training Grounds, KAZIBA - A set spell for the deck. It has a few effects. The first is all Bladedancers get 2000 attack which is nice but nothing special.
The second and more important effect lets you gain 2 life and deal 2 damage if the opponent destroys a Bladedancer on the left or right during the opponent's turn. This combos well with KUROGANE since he forces the opponent's monsters to attack something. It creates a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario for them.
Also, you can have multiples of the spell on the field to burn the opponent for 4, 6 or even 8 damage when a monster is destroyed.
Fusion Style, Steadfast Sequence the First - The first of two attack nulls for the deck. I use the word "attack null" loosely here because the cards don't actually "nullify" an attack. They reduce the damage to 0 which allows the counterattack to occur. If the attacks were nullified, the counterattack wouldn't go through.
Recover Veil - The second attack "null". I know it's probably weird to see a generic card in the deck but it fits pretty well with the archetype in general. First, it protects your hand against decks that want to discard your hand which is nice but not why it's run.
At counter speed, you can do one of two things. Either gain two gauge, which is nice for those clutch moments you need the gauge for your impact or, reduce the next attack you take to 0 which still triggers the counterattack of your Excelblade item. Just keep in mind that it doesn't reduce effect damage.
If you don't want to spend money on Recover Veil or are having hard time finding it, a decent second option is Kagura, Blossom Dancer. You can at least get the "reduce to 0" effect with the card but it won't give you the gauge gain option.
Demon Way, Sakurafubuki - The classic 1 of that can be put in practically any Katana World deck. For 2 life, you can nullify a spell. Pretty simple and straightforward. There's an argument to be made that the power creep at the end of the game is such that one spell null for a turn isn't a huge deal so if you don't want to put this card in, I totally understand.
Excelskill of Iai, "Kamikaze" - Last but certainly not least is the main impact of the deck. Kamikaze can only be casted if your Excelblade item is standing. It costs 2 gauge and you nullify the attack, then, nullify the abilities of all attacking cards and destroy them, draw 2 cards and deal 3 damage. It's pretty crazy. Also, I don't run any of the Pinnacle of Iai, Godspeed because Kamikaze is basically just a better version all around. I also don't think you need to run any copies of Godspeed a long side Kamikaze. Just only run Kamikaze.
Sideboard
Cherry Blossom Dance - Another layer of protection for your item and helps hinder decks that rely on summoning monsters from the drop zone.
Heavyblade Swordsman, NAMARI - Helps trigger the set spell in the main deck and allows you to get back your impact from the drop so you can use it again. I foresee this being added in if the opponent has a lot of life gain where you can't finish someone off with one or two of the impacts.
Spider Thread Art - Honestly, this isn't a great sideboard option so if you have something else you prefer more, go for it. Another good option is Grace of the Sun Deity if you are fighting Lost World and want to keep your item equipped.
There you have it. I think the deck definitely has enough cards for a little bit of wiggle room for some number/card changes based on how you play but the staples cards for the deck are pretty set in stone.
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