Hey everyone, I was just reminiscing on the history of competitive Buddyfight as a whole and how the game has evolved over the years. So in this post I would like to talk about the decks that took the game by storm and dominated, some of these formats were the most skill-intensive formats while some were just Tier 0 formats that was about who had the better hand. So now let's take a look.
2014
Thunder Knights no doubt was the strongest deck in the game at that point in time, due to the fact that Dragon World had access to the best negates in the game which were Blue Dragon Shield and Green Dragon Shield to give them insane defence and advantage. Being a great beatdown deck with the help of Fahne for the extra critical pressure along with the ability to give your stuff move added a huge amount of offensive pressure, not to mention the combination of Dragobond and moving to the center. Dragoarcher was another card that was too good for it's time in the game, letting you +1 draw for free if you called it with another Thunder Knight on the board. Moreover, access to the best impact in the game at the time, Gargantua Punisher just pushed the deck over the edge. While cards like Inferno Armor Dragon helped you to clear and control the board.
2015
The game started to catch on here in Singapore as it started to grow in popularity as it was the more 'skilful' game in comparison to Vanguard at that point in time as it was a breath of fresh air. However, in came the cancer of Impacts that kill you easily, stopping the fun of the game because there were no answers at that point in time. Kaizerion came and dominated the game for a long time, simply due to the fact that they had access to the best impact in the game in the form of Brave Energy Full Drive, as well as Hyper Energy. Moreover, there were little to no answers to Kaizerion except casting a Nemesis Thunder to destroy the Kaizerion before it could put cards into it's soul. Yes imagine playing the game with essentially 5 health, 2 if you are going second because a Kaizerion would swing at face and you'll be at 7 leaving you with 2 Health to work with before you get slapped in the face with a Full Drive.
2016 (First 3/4)
Oh for the love of the game, 2016-2017 was one of the best years for competitive Buddyfight. There were so many good decks that it was actually fun. As you can see, the meta were all the decks in the above picture from the first half to the second half. Fifth Omni was the old reliable control deck with Drum and Doble as well as the amazing offensive potential the deck had. Whereas Aster was the Tank of the format with many tools to control and pressure other decks with it's unkillable Jack. Shadow Shades were the inherent counter to Drum, Aster and Pillars as it could out-tank both decks with it's crazy amount of soul generation as well as field control and extra attacks with Impact Joe. Azi was here and there because of it's access to the 8 damage Giga Howling Crusher, with the 6-crit sword and a buddy Pissaro on board, as well as the ability to instantly clear Shadow Shades and Jacknife Asters with a single swing as it negated the Soulguard of the monster for the turn. 72 Pillars became a thing for the longest time with the printing of Teacher Asmodai because it simply provided so much advantage with the ability to bounce their own stuff for more enter field effect procs and the ability to destroy 2 cards on your opponents board. Not to mention the combination with Saturday Night Devil Fever for the extra bombing and attacks. Simply the most skilled deck of the format. Then came Oberon, with the introduction of Red Arthur, the deck had an offensive option in Arthur and Oberon for board control to stop every deck in the format. Truly a cancer in itself.
2016 (Last 1/4)
Well the times of the skilled format took a backseat with the release of Dragon Zwei, however it took the Japanese players awhile before they discovered just how strong the deck could be when it is mixed with Size 3 Neodragons. With the introduction of the 20 life the deck inherently was such a strong tank deck, not to mention the ability to call 2 size 3 monsters on board and Diemenzion EX having 2 soul was soul crushing for any deck because it was simply too difficult to clear as well as survive the offensive onslaught by the deck. The dominance of Zwei lasted a good full 1 year, which was insane with the longevity of the deck. The only other deck to last that long was Dimension Dragons but that is a story for another time. Before Worlds of 2016 in came the new release of Zetta Loop which involved Guilty Wave. With the ability to impact call as many time in one turn and Guilty Wave returning to hand after every attack, it created a loop with infinite attacks as long as you had the gauge to sustain Guilty Wave, moreover your Zetta would stack criticals based on the amount of impact calls you made during the turn. Yes Guilty Wave was immediately errata'd following it's short cancer stint in the game and at Worlds.
2017 (The Springfest of Tier 0)
Yes it was a Tier 0 format dominated by Executioners. Eventhough it was a Tier 0 format it was considered one of the most skilled formats simply due to the fact that the mirror was extremely hard to pilot. Having access to Hell Gate was one of the most important factors in the game as the Executioner player had the ability to toolbox any card in their drop every turn, leading to many different path of plays depending on the board state. Many a times, games would go to deckout and usually the more skilled player would know how to control their resources as well as their deck to prevent a deckout. The deck simply had access to almost everything the game had to offer from control to card draw and a recycle-able negate. Moreover a card to call monsters from the drop that could be retrieved at the start of their turn. Simply a deck that was dominant and rewarded skill. If you would like to get better at the game I would recommend picking up an executioner deck from the 2017 format and playing mirror games with your friends. It countered everything in the format including the ever resilient Zwei with Cougar to farm the extra advantage every turn.
Thats all for today folks. Let me know if you would like me to go into details about the decks.
The lack of dungeon world in 2014 really shocks me. This deck was insane, good ability to threat kill each turns and insane card advantage.
ReplyDeleteI unfortunatly never was able to test the match up tknight - dungeon hybrid, but I cannot see how dungeon is not a notable tier 1 alongside Tknight.
Btw, I am looking to do a more history of Buddyfight up to 2016 (after which I stopped the game) If you are down to help me, that would be appreciated.