With any competitive, multiplayer game with collectable aspects, buddyfight has a meta game. For those who do not know, a meta game is not how you should play the game, but how people are playing the game. Now before I continue, I WILL NOT ANALYSE THE CURRENT META GAME IN THIS POST, this is a guide on how to analyse it yourself rather than getting others to do it for you. This is a valuable skill not only in game, but also in real life, as analysing how other people do things allow you to change your own actions to be more effective in anything you do. Also meta games are dependent on where they are, as different groups of players play different things depending on what resources (in this case cards) are available to them and what people like. So first, lets see how a meta game works.
So meta game analysis is when you look at a meta game and work out how it works, what you can learn from it and then applying that knowledge. this is a common practice among veteran TCG players and you can see this in almost every competitive magic player. Learning the appropriate skills will allow you to build better decks and play much better in high level play. This is a simple guide to analysing meta games with buddyfight as the main focus, but this isn't a de-facto article, keep researching past what I say here.
First, find out what is winning in the areas you are close to. The trick with meta games is that while metas can be similar, they are almost never the same in different areas. Where do you play your games? Is it at the local store? Is it at big country wide events? Is it at world championships? Is it online? This determines what meta you are going to look at. Now try and find a way of seeing what is played, what is winning and what makes that winning deck or strategy tick. For big events, you can normally see deck lists and interviews on various websites, such as other blogs and the events' website/s. For example, the buddy challenge top 3 deck lists are on the buddyfight website for each country, and interviews for some of the events winners can be found on the wiki and some blogs. For your local store that requires a little more work. Talk with others and don't be afraid of competing in tournaments, they not only help you develop your skills but also get an idea of how the meta works. if your local store has an online community or Facebook page, try to get a discussion going to find out the current meta. For online communities like tradecardsonline.com you can normally find decks lists and recorded battles, making it easy to analyse the current meta of that community, but online communities tend to change faster due to the nature of the format.
Once you have the information, you need to analyse it of-cause. This involves looking at the most used decks, compare it to the top placing decks, look at the decks that had defeated such top decks and if there is any other weaknesses those top decks have. Now I feel the best way of fighting competitively is coming up with a way of countering the meta in the most effective way possible rather than following it. This requires more work than simply net decking, but it can give you a better chance at winning, rather than going in with a deck most people would expect and facing the same deck in mirror match after mirror match (Mirror matches are when two identical or close to identical decks battle each other) relying on the fact that you know your deck better than anyone else. While net decking is what a beginner might be inclined to do, it will not mean you will win, but in-fact actually lower your chances at winning. Remember to note why people use those decks, as that will determine how people will play the deck. It may be played differently to how you think its played at that will affect how you beat it. Once you have an idea of what you are up against and how it works, you want to build against it.
Now this doesn't mean you will have to completely change your deck, you can and it may help more, but you can normally get away with changing a few cards in your deck or sideboard. In fact your sideboard should be your ultimate tool to countering those pesky decks. Don't think this is vanguard where if your deck loses against this deck often enough that deck will never win, no buddyfight is allot more open. Note that you wont be up against just one deck (That's an example of a bad meta you smogon pokemon players) so don't make your entire sideboard or deck is built to counter the most common deck. Add those few cards that counter those common decks but remember your deck needs to be able to win not only against that deck but other ones as well.
So now you have built a deck that can counter the meta, test and adjust just like any other deck. Fight those common decks and note any changes to the meta. Enter tournaments and prepare for any major events you are going to enter. And that's it! There isn't really much to it. Remember that this is a guide, not a set way of doing things, so try to keep an eye out for situations where you may not need to do something I have said here or if there is something I have not talked about. Keep your mind open and learning, but never lose sight of your own play style.
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