Chaos & Perfection

Hello everyone! Today let's take a look at a deck that has recently gotten back into popularity with the rise of Time Dragons & Crossover style decks, Chaos. What do these decks have in common that helps Chaos come back into the meta? The inability to have access to Loyalty. Chaos has always been a deck with amazing draw power and board presence, letting you play up to 4 monsters on the board as long as you have Chaos Territory. This is a high skill cap deck that rewards you, however a single loyalty and you will most probably instantly be very far behind.

The Blue Pill or Red Pill?

           

So there are currently 2 builds to play Chaos, the Non-Autodeity and the Autodeity build. Both have their pros and cons, however both require Lost World as Chaos has become a Lost deck due to the fact how fast they dig through their deck within 2 turns it is possible to deck out. 

 

• Super Agressive deck
• Multiple Attacks
• Battle Phase extender in the form of Batz Overkill and Impact
• Sure kill if the opponent has no proper counters
• Less overall advantage compared to the Non-Autodeity build
• Weak to BuddyBlock, Loyalty and Loud Voice Effects

I will mainly focus on the deck that surprised many who watched the Japan Final Stage and wondered how it worked. Without further ado, let's look at the rise of an old card.

• Super Defensive deck
• Has more farming tools compared to the Autodeity build
• More overall consistency
• Over-reliance that the opponent does not have Loyalty
• Extremely weak to Loyalty (Cannot emphasise it enough)

Shield of Aegis

I see you have chosen the Blue Pill, which means defence, well a good defence is always a good offence. So how this deck functions is basically abusing the Chaos Territory effect to it's fullest. So how does it work?

Basically having a full center, when you would call another monster in the middle, if they have enter field effects it will go into standby because you have to resolve the game state of oversize. This is where you can use Geargod's skill Chaos Territory to destroy a monster on your field to prevent it from leaving. This is where you destroy the monster you want to destroy. Abusing 'when this card is destroyed' effects such as Dragollum, netting you +2 life and +1 draw on destruction and due to soulguard you can destroy it twice for a grand total of +4 life and +2 draw. See where this is going? 

Some combos that you can pull off with the new Geargod is calling Chaos Lumiere during your opponent's battle phase to destroy a monster on your opponent's field, using Chaos Drain to destroy Lumiere again to proc it's effect a second time. A sweet and simple combo to get rid of pesky monsters. If you want to go for more advantage you can always call Dragollum again to draw 2 and gain 4 life as well. 

Essentially you can draw an insane number of cards in one turn, definitely drawing Lost World in the process. Big hand means more options and spells to use when in Lost World! And because you can draw so many cards in Lost World, you can play the Vile Vortex build which relies so much on drawing into the combo pieces. However, do remember that if you are in Chaos Infinity, once you go into Lost World you lose the attack and defence thus not being able to attack with the flag. 

As you can see, this is a hard deck to pilot that rewards the player for the correct plays. Moreover, with decks cutting on Loyalty now, this is a good time to try this out! If you like to draw cards and big monsters this is definitely the deck for you. Furthermore, with this build you can build a cheap Lost Deck focused on Vortex if you are on a budget.

Decklist from Japan Final Stage Participant

Chaos Emgreim is a card to consider playing due to the fact there are many Ability Null effects currently running around, you want to fully maximise your advantage engine and ensure your field stays sticky with Geargod. Ensuring your effects resolve is as important. I hope you enjoy experimenting with Chaos and finding even sweeter interactions and combos. 

Peace

Locals Shop Tournament Matches

Road to Worlds Series #1 (Getting Better)

Hello everyone welcome to a special series, I'm sure everyone's goal is to win their Regional Qualifiers and go to Worlds and win the whole thing. Being a World Champion is something many covet, it is a long and tough road. Grinding countlessly and hoping that your cards all align on the day of the competition. While the luck you have cannot be changed, the way you play can. 

A look at Worlds Matches

First off, let's take a look at Game 1 of the World Finals. As you can see the Horus player went first and has set-up his board. By this point you should be expecting 1-2 Luucy in their hand and you have to play around accordingly. However, the DD player has made the mistake of going for the greedy play. He called Agonia and Epis right after, while having D. Suction in his hand. This gave the Horus player 2 timings to null both Agonia and Epis, crippling the DD player enough to outright lose the game right then and there. The correct play would have been to call Agonia and used D. Suction on it to guarantee the effect going off. This is extremely crucial as you play around Luucy and you can fish for more outs. As you can see, sequencing is especially important at the highest level of this game.

Now let's take a look at Game 1 of the Semi Finals. Andrew waited for the Flame Horus to be called before using Luucy to nullify both Flame and Freezer Horus, there are pros and cons to this play. First off, if Sean has to do a 'blind' call for Freezer Horus it means that his hand lacks Duric. If he had Duric it would have been played first to either bait a Luucy or punish Andrew by farming into more outs. But why would you go for Duric first when the usual play is always draw first before using effects that check the top few cards of your deck so that you have information on what you lack thus being able to have near perfect information on what to take (No perfect information because you cannot see your opponent's hand). This is because you want to force your opponent into making a decision, either use their Luucy to stop the Duric from giving you advantage or letting it through. But based on how the opponent plays this out you can assume two things.

If he does not use Luucy, there is a higher probability that he does not have 2 Luucy in his hand which is usually the case or that he is just saving them all up for later turns. If he does use Luucy, expect that he has another in hand obviously as the main priority is to stop the Buddy Call effect from Horus resolving. This is the mirror and it will get grindy as whoever runs out of resources first will be the one that is unable to defend from the other player. 

  

With this information in hand, he should have used Luucy on Freezer Horus's effect preventing the Flame Horus from coming down unless Sean commits another 2 gauge. This alone forces Sean to have Aharamat to gauge 2 just to call. Moreover, if he has the spell 'Victory' in his hand he can only cast it after committing an item to retrieve Jutha and call it. Forcing the opponent to commit more resources means they require specific cards to get out of their unfavored position. By requiring specific cards lowers the possibility that they can win on their turn, however if they have the nuts you lose either way. This is just a way of mitigating the possibility of giving your opponent unnecessary advantage.

Sequencing & why it matters

Buddyfight is a simple game to learn however difficult to master, one of the main reasons are the counter timings and sequencing. Sequencing is crucial in this game due to the fact that it lowers the possibility of dead draws or lower quality of plays. The standard rule of thumb is always to draw first before using 'Super Hero Time' & 'Darryl Berk' like effects. This is so that you draw your cards first giving you more options as to what you need after the additional card draw. 

When you are playing against decks with 'End Battle Phase' effects always remember to link attack with enough damage to pressure the opponent into doing something. Asking the question is always better than giving the answer. This is because there are specific answers to questions, so theoretically your opponent will have a lower possibility in having answers to your questions. Sounds confusing right. 

With Loyalty being the bane of almost every deck's existence. Always take into account that the opponent has Loyalty in their hand and sequence your calls accordingly and do not blindly play into it.

To surmise, sequencing is important to maximise on the information that you have so that you can make more informed decisions over the course of the game therefore increasing the probability that you will win. Moreover, you can bait cards from your opponents by sequencing the correct way which I will talk about now.

Baiting & Hand Reading

The game at higher levels are all about mind games, baiting cards out of your opponent's hand is crucial and testing for certain cards so that you can read their hand is important as well. Simple cards like Sweet Happy Time can be used to bait cards out of your opponent's hand. For example you have a huge board and your opponent doesn't know if you are going to call more monsters so they keep their rest spells in their hand, by calculating the total damage output that you are able to do, sometimes entering battle phase is the right choice. This is to prevent giving the opponent a counter timing to rest your cards without you being able to react. So you want to go into battle baiting a rest spell, only to cast Sweet Happy Time for maximum value. Always remember that if you can afford to bait out cards, do it. Ensure that the risk & reward for baiting is positive net value. 

Hand Reading is crucial, however this is harder to do as you require deck knowledge of how the turn goes for each deck and what is crucial for them. Only after many hours of testing will you know the optimal sequence the opponent will play using a certain deck, with this knowledge you can do hand reading and guess. This is where you can go 1 for 1 with them with your cards. The best example being Horus against Dimension Dragons. Where their most optimal play is to go Set Spell into Nice One, followed by Agonia, suction into Epis if they go second against Horus. Any other sequence and they are susceptible to their cards getting destroyed, taking the risk.  

Always be Ready

Always be wary of certain combos that are available to the opponent. An example is the Dogma and Epoch combo, this is crucial as a timely Epoch can destroy you completely. This is why game and deck knowledge is crucial, study the meta and test to figure out what stops you in your tracks and what lines of play the opponent can make. Buddyfight is a simple game that you only have to see what you need to do on your turn to either win or go to your next turn with the most advantage. You do not have to think so far into the future. Practice more and you can improve your play speed to the point where it becomes a muscle memory as to what is the best play automatically, this is crucial especially when it comes to official tournaments where there is a time-limit. Imagine losing due to time-out when you know you have game, thats a very bad feeling that leaves a sour taste in your mouth. 

I hope that this series has helped you in some shape or form in improving your game. 

Peace.

Seeing the Stars for Victory

Hi guys, today I'll be taking a look at the revival of an Ace! The Ace of Studies! With the release of Perfected Time Ruler S-BT07, Cross has evolved and achieved a new form and ascended into a God! With these new cards will it be enough to make Astrodragons great again and take a place on the pedestal of great decks? Well let's take a look.

 In with the New

The new form of Cross has a new Galaxy DF skill, when Cross is in the center-

• If a monster is on your left, all cards on your field get [Counterattack] and defense+10000!
  ・If a monster is on your right, all cards on your field get [Penetrate] and power+10000!
  ・If you have an item equipped, all cards on your field cannot be [Rest] by your opponent's card effects, and get critical+1!

Cross also has Triple Attack! As you can see with this new skill your field is powered up by the stars into greater heights. Increasing the aggro potential. This is a must include at 4 copies in all Astro Decks. Moreover, being a 'Dragod' you can play this card in other worlds, creating new combinations. Think of this in Chaos and Battle Buildings? All the possibilities!

By far the second most important card that Astro Dragons need, a revival spell and a deck refresh. This is very important as Astro goes through the deck very quickly with the multiple farming tools. Being able to refresh your deck means more farming, you can also keep it for your Lost World turn! This is crucial in maintaining your board presence as well. Minimum of 2 copies is played, consider siding 1-2 copies more if you are playing against other aggressive decks. This spell is crucial in those matchups. 

The Analysis

Decklist from Japan CardKingdom Winner 

So let's take a look at this list that has won a shop tournament in Japan. So why does the deck function so well? Let's look at the new stuff that makes Astro viable in the current meta. Astro always had consistency issues with maintaining a full board especially true because they lacked a consistent way to play size 0 cards that were good. However, with the new set comes 2 very important cards that covers the consistency issues.

First off let's talk about 'Govern Star Dragon, Grays' this card helps to tutor out or retrieve your Set Spell. This is crucial as your set spell is the main reason your card skills do not get nullified, moreover every time you play an Astro Dragon monster you get to draw 1 and gain 1 life, once per turn. Next we look at 'Seer Dragon, Pale' this card has an inbuilt effect that lets you take this card back from the drop zone at the start of your main phase for a cheap cost of 1 life. So once this card is in your drop you will never have to worry about not having the full formation. But the key part of this card is it reduces the gauge cost of your Astro Dragon monsters when called from hand by 2!! This makes your Cross only 1 gauge! Amazing.

Well now with Cross, this card is a 15k Defensive wall that redirects all attacks to it, not to mention it has counter attack! The 2 soul is crucial as well for casting your spells and making your opponent hit it 3 times just to clear it. The most annoying card to go against when you are playing an aggro deck.

The best defensive cards in Astro, they can not only be used defensively but as a disruption tool as well during your opponent's turn to get rid of their board and key cards. Always remember that Time Dragons have to remove a soul to cast their rest spell which leaves their Time Ruler with 1 soul, making your Cross Pair Slash the ultimate punishing tool.

Other Card Choices

A sideboard option usually unless your local meta has many 'End Battle Phase' effects. This battle phase extender is strong in ensuring the kill. Moreover the synergy with Cross from S-BT02 that calls a monster from drop during the start of attack phase creates a loop with Coupe. 

How it works is during the battle phase you call coupe from drop with the effect of Cross, during your final phase Coupe goes back to your hand and you cast Endgame Study, letting you use Cross effect again to call another Coupe from drop and the loop begins. A strong combo that helped the Japan National Champion of Final Stage in 2018 win. 

Lost World is always a win condition by itself, having more win conditions can only mean positive upside, so why not play it? 

Understanding your Weaknesses

Remember that Loyalty and Buddyblock are your two biggest enemies. Always play around them accordingly, this is where card and deck knowledge will play a part. Do not go too crazy with your calls so that you can farm more cards, presenting a board with lethal is good enough while maintaining enough gauge to cast your revival spell. So with game knowledge playing a part you will have to ask yourself what are the chances and odds that your opponent plays these cards in the main board game 1? Buddyblock is not a main board card in most decks so do not play around it, whereas Loyalty is. Remember to always sequence your calls accordingly to play around Loyalty. Always perform link attacks if you are wary that the opponent has Buddyblock. Watch how your opponent reacts and plays when you commit to the first link attack, then based on your read you can tell if he has it or not. This separates the good players from the rest. Loud Voice effects that reduces the critical of your board is a bane as well, thus consider siding in more 'Tesla-line Field' to ensure your offence doesn't get hindered. Well thats all I have for you today.

Say NO to Loud Voice

Peace

Countering the Big Daddy

With the release of Time Dragons you may be wondering why is this deck so broken and how do I beat it? Well first off let me tell you that the format we are currently in (S-BT07) is a healthy format and it’s not considered a Tier 0 format. First off there are a few glaring weaknesses of Time Dragons, namely hyper aggressive decks that can dish out insane amounts of damage and have a way to extend the battle phase. Time Dragons inherently is considered to be a true control deck right down to its core, so what that means is a lack of offensive pressure. By being a true control deck, means it comes with its bad sides which is a slow deck in winning the game. So decks with multiple wincons such as Phantom Thief Draco can take advantage of them. 

The Counters

Let’s talk about how each deck can counter Time Dragons. First off would be the most obvious, Horus. Simply casting a single ‘Sweet Happy Time’ will Ensure all your Horus effects from resolving which is crucial for the push,  board presence and control. Once that first step is done all you have to do is farm for a spell null and go all in. 

Key pointers to note- use Luucy to stop their Time Ruler from going off to maintain your board. Consider siding in Impact to push for the extra 4-6 damage. Siding in ‘Pyramidal Peak’ to get rid of the pesky set spell and size 0 cards. This is a matchup about skill. Know when to cast certain spells after baiting the Time Dragon player to commit to the board.

Next up we have is Phantom Thief Draco. Yes a Budget deck can even win the most expensive deck. There’s two builds, with or without Lost World. For those more Budget friendly, the non-lost build has a different wincon which is the size 3 Monster ‘Twenty Fani’. A quad triple Attack with 4 critical is more than enough. As Time Dragons have no proper and efficient way to restand their field currently, all the Phantom Thief player has to do is rest their board all the while milling their deck with Sky Castle and Harry. 

Key things to note- As the magic world player you need to understand and identify the wincons that you have and how close you are to them. This is very difficult to do without proper practice and understanding of your deck. Burn damage from Holy Magic and Steal Time also stacks up over time so take note of that. There’s multiple ways of going around this matchup. Sequencing is especially important when navigating as well. 

Moving on would be Astrodragons- your board is key and anti skill nullification is more important. Do not play the new item as it gets shutdown by Time Ruler, play Skyseer Bow Calum Rex for its 2 soul and protection effects.  Like Horus a single sweet happy time is more than enough to push for game. Do watch out for their rest spells, so use ‘Cross Pair Slash’ to get rid of their souls to prevent them from casting it. 

Key pointers to note- Consider siding in ‘End game study’ to continue the battle phase. Always remember about their ability nullification and play around it. Always go second. Keep your revival spell for their Lost turn, this is the most crucial point. 

Moving onto Roselia, a simple deck to pilot but easier to misplay. With a full board always aim to go for link attacks with penetrate. If you have the exodia combo(4 Roselia cards with protection and offence) you more or less can push for game. Slam hard and impact to extend the battle phase. Use spells to call monsters from drop to continue the Attack. 

Key pointers to note- sequence your calls properly to prevent them from getting destroyed or nullified. Keep your revival spell for their lost turn. 

Idolmaster Kirari/Anzu- if you go first and you have the discard combo, go for it. If you go second remember that your protection spell ‘The Trick is to...’ is important to prevent your cards from being rested, destroyed and nullified. Kirari is key as it stops the Time Dragon player from doing anything. Remember to keep ‘Sexy & Guilty’ to destroy their set spells.

Key pointers to note- timing is important, know when to use your protection cards, sometimes you will not use it defensively in order to Ensure game next turn. Consider siding in more revival spells as the game will prolong to the point you might deck out. Consider siding in impacts to restand your board or to deal 5 damage. There are many different ways to counter this matchup and find out which way is best for you. Side out your Kanako Mimura if you are sure you are going second. It’s only needed for the turn 1 combo. 

Well that’s all I have for you guys today. Buddyfight has reached the point whereby there’s no clear best deck without weaknesses. Time Dragon is popular because it’s a new Mechanic and it’s a deck that rewards skill and deck building. Not every player can pick up Time Dragons and expect immediate results with it. So do not think that because you’re playing against it, you’ll lose.

Peace