Saturday, February 17, 2018

Driven to Disorder Katana World Set Review


Hey Everyone! Long time no see. 

Welcome to my first Katana World set review. I will talk about the Katana World cards coming out in the newest set and predict and see if my predictions are true. In this case, it's the climax booster "Driven to Disorder". I figured this would be a good way for me analyze a whole set of Katana World cards at once. I think it'll help players figure out what cards are viable options for their Katana World deck building. 

I've heard that starting from Driven to Disorder and on, Bushiroad will start releasing sets comprising of every world so you can expect these to come out on a pretty regular basis. Do keep in mind that I will be talking about cards in regards to being played ONLY with the Katana World flag. This means I won't talk much about a card in regards to an attribute flag (like The Chaos, Thunder Empire, Guardians, Executioners, etc.). Some cards may be good for those flags (and I'll even say so) but I won't go in too depth about it.

So without further ado, let's jump into it. I will go from high rarity to low rarity and in alphabetical order.

Triple Rares:

Seriously. Why is Giant Tanuki and his evolved form in Katana World?
Starting off with an irrelevant card for Katana World. Giant Tanuki's "true" form is real solid for Guardians and Executioners a like since he procs his own effects but has no real place for any Katana World deck. Ninjas want to be aggressive as hell (see what I did there?) with size 1 rush , Skull Warriors are trying to figure out their purpose in this meta, Water has no place for this card and neither do Blade Beasts or Oni Assassins. Overall pretty passable for Katana World but don't get me wrong, it's a welcomed card for Guardians and Executioners.


*Om nom nom*

Now this is a card I can work with in Oni Assassins. This set's Oni Assassin cards seem to be more on being aggressive with cards having Penetrate and Double Attack in this set. It feel like it falls short on that task compared to other aggro decks out right now and I still think the countering and out maneuvering ability of Onis is still the better play style.

Regardless, this is still a solid card for Onis. 3 critical penetrate at 10k can help break through walls but the on-enter ability and Overkill are amazing. It has move so it can work with the Oni weapons that can't attack through a closed center which is nice since we don't have Hairpin Blade, Hoozuki in English yet.

The on-enter ability lets you search your deck and take literally any card in your deck and put it face down into the soul. This really helps Oni decks be more consistent with getting the specific Oni/Spell sideboard card out of the deck that really needs to be played against their match up and get it prepped either offensively or defensively. I'm thinking this may replace the impact Dark Skill, Eerie Wailings but I'll have to play test that and see. I still like the impact.

Keep in mind that the on-enter ability is a named ability once per turn so you can't activate it multiple times with you keep calling Arabone Ibuki.

The overkill is a little expensive but I think it's better than the "Shuten Demonic Deity" Kid Ibuki overkill. At least "Arabone" Ibuki nullifies the ability of the card (not just monster) you want to destroy. So if you're struggling with an item or spell, you can kiss it goodbye. The one downside I have with it is you can only use the Overkill during your opponent's turn so you can't use it for a more aggro push.

Double Rares:

Tonight, we strike!
This card is nice. Like, real nice. It replaces Watchful Eyes in my opinion. Not that I thought Watchful Eyes was a great card but I felt Bushiroad was twisting our arm to run it when Overturn! Thunder Empire was released. I'm not a huge fan of cards that give only life gain. It doesn't do anything for your the Oni's win condition. Gaining 2 life and a gauge also isn't great either.

Ibuki's Encouragement on the other hand helps keep your aggro push going for game by calling Oni Boss, Kid Ibuki, Body of Dark Arms, Kid Ibuki and the like with the first ability without losing hand advantage. The first ability isn't once per turn either so if you draw into another one, you can keep the aggro train going.

The second ability set up by replenishing gauge and hand which is always welcomed and does a lot more than just giving you 3 life...

Looks like Kureha has some competition.
At first, I was hesitant on how good this card was but after a little bit of brain storming. It's a welcomed card in Onis. It helps prep attacks with the gauge gain and even though the call cost is from hand, it's optional (up to one) and honestly, sometimes, you do have a card in hand you really want face down on the field but you might not have House of Assassins, Oni Convoy available to accomplish this.

At least putting the card face down into her soul from hand lets you know what you'll get with you ambush (instead of from top of deck) and sets you up easily for Hiding Oni and Underhanded Means, Sneak Attack. 

You can combine this card with Kureha to help absorb attacks. By putting Kureha in Bridge Princess' soul from the call cost, when Bridge Princess dies, call Kureha. Use Kureha's ability to regrab Bridge Princess and put her back in Kureha's soul. Then, when Kureha dies, call Bridge Princess back to gain 2 more gauge and prep her with a real card. It's a nice way to try to mitigate the multiple attacks many decks like Thunder Empire and Chaos can do in a turn.

At its core , it's a beat stick, preparation and resource gain card which is always welcomed in Onis.


Mikazukimaru grew up so fast.
Shifting away from Oni Assassins and over to Ninjas for a moment. This card took me a little while to warm up to. Ninjas have been predominately fixed on cards related to Tsukikage, Byakuya and Gojinmaru variants so I'm usually skeptical and have to think about the interaction of said card when it's not a direct version of the ninja bothers.

This one gets my mark of approval and I think will be apart of the aggressive Ninja deck that's predominant right now with Overturn Ninja, Tsukikage. After you attack with 3 ninjas, use Overturn to call a couple more Tsukikage/Byakuya monsters, you can counter call this and put them all in this card's soul for a 3 crit swing.

I think Byakuya "Shiroyasha Mode" and Nanomachine Ninja, Tsukikage "SD" will be used to some degree with Mangetsumaru to give him shadow dive and boost up his attack/defense.

The only thing I don't like about him is the counterattack. The counterattack would've been much nicer before Batzz, Athora and GearGod became a thing but no card is perfect so I'll take what I can get. At least it helps clear weaker monsters. Plus, with Hades Flame Style, Art of Fire Manipulation coming out as a participation price at Bushiroad Spring Fest 2018, it'll help reactivate counterattack and keep him on the field or re-stand him and push for game.


Rares

I wonder if there's a Blade Beast for this sword.
Moving on, we're looking at the new Blade Beast/Japanese Blade weapon. Sure it's a little expensive with 2 gauge but you can recoup that cost and get double attack by playing spells on your turn (like Clear Serenity) and your opponent's turn (like Sword Skill, Zanteisettetsu or Ninja Arts, Snake Gaze). Sure you can't do anything with the double attack on your opponent's turn but that's not the point.

Also, starting with this card, Batzz Stone, Thunder Emperor's Augite can legitimately be used in Katana World. With this sword being the only Thunder Empire/Katana World weapon though, I don't think I'll be using Batzz Stone in Blade Beasts.

I do think this card has some possible use in aggro Ninja decks though. After you attack with your full field using Overturn Ninja, Tsukikage, you can call Mangetsumaru off to the side, attack with this sword and still attack with Mangetsumaru. Then, Mangetsumaru has move to cover you during your opponent's turn.

I think someone needs to brush her teeth.
Hopping right back over to Onis, we have another... err... lovely lady.

I think she'll be a nice 1 of tech for the main deck that you can always take out during the second game if the opponent doesn't have set spells or a lot of low level monsters. There's a lot of set spells coming out right now for various archetypes and most of them aren't safe from destruction.

Couple that with most size 1 and less aren't safe from destruction effects and I feel like she can destroy two cards on your opponent's field.  She still has 2 crit as well which is nice for trying to push for game.


This card's flavor text speaks to me on a spiritual level.
This card is pretty lackluster for Katana World. Especially since it's a Ninja but Ninjas just want to make a full field of size 1s and push damage. He doesn't accomplish anything related to that. I suppose in theory, he could work for Blade Beasts since they're an open center deck but I don't see it worth it. Maybe as a side board card.

For Thunder Empire though, I think this card will be really annoying since it keeps Batzz a live from attacks and just makes your attacks against Thunder Empire lose a critical. Man, screw this card for Thunder Empire lol. Ultimately, it may be more of a side board card for Thunder Empire since they just want to search for the ace cards (Batzz and Item) and push for game.


Mi casa es su casa.
This was the card that made me realize that Bushiroad is releasing Oni Assassin cards to try to make Oni Assassins more aggressive. Unfortunately, it falls short in that part. The 2000 power is pretty much irrelevant and pointless and there's no resource regain from countering and removing a soul from your cards. I'd rather just run Ibuki's Encouragement with Oni Convoy.

I know not every Oni Assassin set spell can be amazing but I feel like Bushiroad missed their mark on making a legitimate aggro Oni Assassin deck in this set. Oh well. I still like the current play style that Onis excel at.

Teamwork makes the dream work! :D
On one hand, I love new secret swords that are relevant to messing with Dragon World but on the other hand, why does Thunder Empire need a freaking Secret Sword? At least it's more effective in a control Ninja deck that uses Secret Sword, Lethal Formation. Before people start to wonder, yes, you do gain the 3 gauge if this is in the soul of Super Lethal Formation as well since it's regarded as "Secret Sword, Lethal Formation" on the field.

I hope this is obvious but the other thing to note about this card is it can be counter casted from hand in Katana World even if it's not in a Secret Sword, Lethal Formation. Sure, you won't gain the 3 gauge but at least it means this card isn't going to always be a dead card in hand.

Also, quick FYI, reducing damage to zero does not count as nullifying an attack. Wording people. It's important.

We each weave our own fate.
Another Guardians/Executioners Katana World card and once again, I don't see much use for it in Katana World. The current meta has many items that can't be destroyed and some set spells that can't be destroyed or they can be recovered easily if destroyed (like Sunken Seabed Ruins). I feel that Chess Break does a better job at removing set spells and if worse comes to worse, you reduce critical during battle instead.

Sure if you open up with this on an opening turn to bounce back items/spells, it may be useful but that's the thing. They go back to the opponent's hand... where he can reequip or recast on his turn.

At best, I think this may be a side board card for Guardians/Executioners. Not much for Katana World let alone ninjas. At least you could always cast it from the soul of Shinobi Scrolls.


Don't worry. Your death will come soon enough.
A new under-the-soul spell card huh? I gotta say, I still find this concept pretty cool for Onis even after all this time. I don't see this card being a main board card. Onis already have extremely low defense and I feel this won't stop anything. Sure, it may be useful against Prism Dragons but that's about it. I think it's more of a side board card if anything and probably as a 1 of tech in the side board. Ibuki's various forms have good attack stats to deal with walls which doesn't really justify using this.

The unfortunate thing about this card is that it doesn't affect items so it can't be used against transform/ride/station cards in Hero World.


I hate spiders
This card is pretty lackluster. Compared to other options Onis have, he doesn't bring anything special to the table. Double attack penetrate with 1 crit is pretty weak and his ambush critical gain doesn't really add anything special. I guess technically it lets penetrate go through if your facing The Chaos and they have Sunken Seabed Ruins on the field. This is the card that makes me think Bushiroad is trying to make Oni Assassins more aggressive but failing miserably at it.

As a side comment, what is with the on-enter, gain double attack ability? Why not just give straight double attack and say if it enters the field via ambush, give it a critical?


Commons:

No! Not Kimensai. What has the Chaos done to you my friend?!
This card makes me question why Bushiroad makes certain kinds of cards. It's literally useless in Skull Warriors as a size 3 and there's much, much better options for The Chaos that they won't even consider using this card. I know not every card can be amazing but come on Bushiroad. This was clearly a filler card for the set. 

Sure you may get that one fringe game where you can kill someone with the one swing of 4 critical penetrate but that doesn't justify anything about this card.

In summary, a pretty useless card for any deck... and yet I will want a play set of foils because the art is cool.

That's an... interesting card name Bushiroad
Many people may skip this card for preference of using Dusk Fiend, Yagyo which is understandable. 

However, I see this card having utility uses in Katana World (and possibly The Chaos) against Plague and Black Dragon Requiem decks that makes me see it as a sideboard card. Since this removes souls from any card on the field, you can prolong the win condition of those decks by removing souls from Scholarly Tome of Death, Aneotomy or Death Count ~Requiem~.

To a lesser extent, you could use this remove souls out of your own cards to proc ambush but I think there's better options than this card for that.


No. It's not that kind of hot box
A new item for Onis that is... pretty lack luster to be honest. The 1000 attack is pretty pointless. It's ultimately a resource/sustain weapon that's once per turn which doesn't help. I feel that there's better options for Oni Assassin weapons than this though. Out of all the Oni Assassin Weapons we've seen in both English and Japanese, I think this is the worst one.


Who is this queen the flavor text speaks of?
I'm not really digging this card. It's a weak 1000/1/1000 that takes a card from your hand if you want. Sure it has soulguard so it can take 2 hits before dying but so what at 1000 defense?

I don't find the 1 damage once per turn via ambushes to be special or impactful. It doesn't work if they have Athora on the field. It doesn't help you control the state of the board with a measly 1000 attack and you can't push for game with 1 critical.

The only counter argument I see is that the Cube and set spell I talk about above helps boost his attack to compensate and make him a beat stick but like I said, both of those cards are pretty bad and combining all 3 of these said cards doesn't achieve anything more than other combination of better, standalone cards.


Goemon is on the hunt for a better form of himself.
Last but not least is the search card I never thought Ninjas would receive. This card has a couple nice uses and it doesn't require and gauge in its cast cost!

If you're looking for your core size 1 ninjas, you can use this to grab Yumi Ninja, Suiha and then use Suiha to grab what you need.

The other option is to grab a form of Gojinmaru, the Tsukikage/Byakuya impact monster or the new Top-Rank Ninja, Mangetsumaru.

Keep in mind that you can always use Secret Scroll to search for this card and Shinobi Scrolls to draw before casting this. It's a nice searcher. A+ material.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

And just like that, I'm done! Keep in mind I purposefully didn't review Fuuton, Sweeping Whirlwind because it's not official if it's a promo in the set as of me writing this review. If you want a quick summary of what I think of the card, it's a definitely a necessary 3-4 of in any Ninja build.

So what do you think? Are you hyped for the new support? Do you like this idea of me reviewing sets before they come out? Let me know in the comments!
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Tuesday, July 25, 2017

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

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Saturday, June 24, 2017

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.
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Sunday, May 14, 2017

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.
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Monday, April 17, 2017

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!

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Sunday, March 12, 2017

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:
  • 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
  • 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!
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