Deck Weaknesses: A guide to how to fight each World!

NOTE! THIS POST IS SERIOUSLY OUTDATED! I AM WORKING ON A NEW POST WHICH WILL COVER INDIVIDUAL DECKS RATHER THAN WORLDS AND BE UPDATED TO THE CURRENT META! USE THIS POST ONLY AS A REFERENCE TO THE PAST!

As with any Trading Card Game, no deck is perfect. Each deck has a weakness that can be exploited. For buddyfight, currently these weaknesses are quite clear for every world but dragon world, though dragon has weaknesses dependent on what kind of deck its running. Today I will be going over the current most popular builds for each world and going over their weaknesses. This is knowledge I have exploited myself during tournaments such as the buddy challenge, and is must have knowledge for any competitive player. Yes this is basically learning the meta, but I won't be going over everything, so don't think this knowledge is everything you need to know. This is also both my opinion and experiences with each world, so it may not be correct.

Danger World - Armorknights (Most Builds)
Surprisingly enough this deck has very few weaknesses despite its lack of support. Danger worlds base power allows it to set up a hefty wall that doubles as a beater, making it very difficult to deal with. The trick for fighting danger world is Weapon destruction. Weapons allow the danger world players to be more aggressive and get off their current best spells, such as Battle Spirit Unite and Invigorating Breath. It also allows them to get one of the greatest abilities in the game, penetrate, either it be from Hysteric Spear or Drill Bunker!! Another technique against Danger World is rush. Danger World currently has only one nullify card, Battle Aura Circle, so danger world players must switch between being aggressive with weapons and being defensive with high defensive monsters such as Armorknight Golem. If you can get the center open, or have some penetrate cards yourself, you can get past those hefty defenders. Just beware that if your opponent has a weapon, they can use Battle Spirit Unite and most likely kill something. Finally, make sure you keep an eye on your life, Danger has enough 3 crit monsters and a few double attack monsters to whittle that down quickly. Once your at 6 you are in the red against Danger world. A smart Danger World player will know these weaknesses, Danger World is one of the most flexible worlds currently, even with its low support. Armorknights focus on consistency, using Armor Reuse to get back powerful things and slamming down Golem or Chimera to both kill guys and keep up a good defense. Good wall breakers are the best way at dealing with these guys. However, magic world can seriously counter all Danger world cards, so time your magic world cards well and you can easily win with them. Katana however has a hard time dealing with them due to the nature of their spells and Tsukikage's ability not blocking penetrate.

Update: With EB02, we finally get the support we needed for Danger, and my god Danger went from switching between attack and defence to now heavy rush with pesky spells. The new weapons, monsters and spells all push the use of an open centre while pushing damage every turn. The cost of this is Danger's draw power. If the deck isn't running Survival Chance, you can counter it by stalling. Kill as many monsters as you can and keep the opponent at bay, that's how you fight Danger. While danger does have some stall options, they still use hand very quickly and with all the Penetrate floating around, its not exactly viable right now, but if they see a chance they will try.
As a danger player, note these weaknesses, and please run survival chance, you will need it.

Danger World - Duel Dragons (Most builds)
Duel Dragons have the same weaknesses as Armorknights, but are a little different. Because of Duel Law, a Duel Dragon player's quest is to get out a unit that can hit hard but also require a double attack. If your Adventurers, you will mostly likely lose to this deck the moment they throw out duel law, as you are reliant on double attacking to deal 6000 or more attack and to get abilities off, and your struggling for gauge as it is. However, you can Spell Disarm Duel Law, then you can get back up and fight a good fight. A simple guide to fighting duel dragons is rush center and save your good attackers for when a big guy like Emperor Dragon, Ghal Kharn or Raging Dragon, Zargus comes out. Just because Duel Law is out doesn't mean you can't link attack, it just means you have to be conservative about it. The longer it takes for you to kill the opponents center monster, the more that player gets to draw, so make sure your ready for it and don't waste precious resources trying to kill them. Also beware of penetrate. Duel dragons have 2, one promo with 5000 attack and 6000 defense, the other is an uncommon with the opposite stats, both for one gauge and 2 crit. These little buggers can make your center not worth having, especially if they can link with hysteric spear. While the promo teams up with duel law better, expect to see the uncommon more for both its availability and power. How to deal with them? Well a good player will use them when needed, so there isn't much you can do other than kill it on your turn. you can have more open centers and try diverging the damage to the left or right by playing decent to high value monsters there. A strategy commonly used by good players. Otherwise fight Duel Dragons like the rest of Danger world.

Update: EB02 gave Duel Dragons the much needed defence they needed, mainly in the form of a turtle and Demongodol Ark. Removal spells are needed against new Duel Dragons, especially since it gets around allot of Duel Dragon's new tricks. Also they too run into hand issues, but not as much as Armorknights. Duel law is now actually scary thanks to the new size 3 and the power up spells, so linking is harder to do, note this if you rely on such tactics. If you are an Adventurer player, try to use pillar of fire when you can, you can't afford the gauge loss due to Duel Law. Oh and always remember to not attack Demongodol Ark with weapons unless they have absolutely no hand at all, they will destroy your weapons.

Magic World - 72 Pillars (Most Builds)
Now we get into Magic World. Magic World is very reliant on spells, making their monsters very weak. Not that a good magic player will care, using spells to open the center to deal damage as you are put on the clock by one of the two most used gun rods. They will have a closed center and your monsters will be bounced and no ability will stop it. There are however whys to beat magic world. Dragon World, Danger World and Dungeon world can all not only kill nearly every monster magic has at size 1 and some size 2 and can have penetrate to deal a little extra. Link attacks with penetrate monsters will destroy magic world, as all they can do is use a spell to stop part of the attack, but their main null, Solomon's shield, wont work against link attacks. Current rulings with dungeon world state that a link attack only has to be declared to activate the adventurers abilities, so this still applies to things like Glazer and Tusuku. Now to get into the 72 Pillars specific tactics. 72 Pillars are quite simple in execution, a few sets spells and abilities here and there relying on them, but nothing fancy like Adventurers or Wizards. What sets them apart from wizards is power and abilities. While Wizards have their abilities and combos rely on their spells for their more fancy tricks, Pillars take a different approach spells Astaroth makes spells have lower cost, while Asmodi can kill monsters when summoned, which is important to note if you plan to have a hefty defender in your center. They also tend to have higher attack power than most wizards when alone, allowing them to kill more things, but this makes them easier to hit. How do you fight pillars? Well pillars still rely on their spells to defend, so the strats above apply. Defending is a little different, but that isn't your focus against them. One last thing, item destruction, those gunrods can be pesky so ridding of them can get you off that clock your opponent has set up.

Magic World - Wizards (Common wizard builds/ Clock Builds)
Wizards are a little different. With Mary Sue they search out spells that rely on wizards, then use things like My Grandfather Clock to perform amazing abilities. Wizards are more combo reliant than Pillars, making them easier to disrupt, but don't get too ahead of yourself. While the combos are important for them, so is having wizards in the drop zone. Once they can play Clock, you are almost certainly screwed, almost. An uncommon strat is to let them use the Clock early when you can afford to skip a turn, but that's both risky and sets you at a disadvantage. Rushing center seems to be the best answer against wizards, well not all wizards.

Magic World - Wizards (Burn)
Burn was rather weak early buddyfight, but a few new cards here and there have led some people to try it, and due to the nature of buddyfight, it can be quite powerful against defensive decks. The gunrods fused with the burn spell and the few monsters that tap or pay gauge to deal one damage can quickly add up. If you are the kind of player that keep their center closed at all times, you need to start dealing so damage as these burn cards will quickly reduce you to nothing no matter how strong your deck is. Fortunately, the decks still haven't been worked out and the cards that burn still aren't strong, so a rush deck and a control deck can quickly deal with these annoying spells. Don't bother countering transflame with your counter spells, there is no point, but getting rid of a gunrod weapon is good. Try to rid of any annoying tap for damage monsters but remember the best 2 out of 3 strategy against this deck as you want to be dealing damage each turn.

Magic World (Drago-wizards)
Drago-wizards are a new addition to the wizard arsenal. they don't count as dragons to abilities such as Dragonslayer and they don't really act as dragons at all, but they have some neat tricks that can take control of the opponents gauge. I haven't seen the deck in action but my assumption is that this deck is quite slow and requires set up, so again rush is important. Set spell destruction is also effective, if you have the gauge to use them as the set spell you want to kill is the one that lets them use your gauge. A good strategy is to keep your gauge at a minimum, don't use gauge chargers unless you plan to use that gauge that turn. I tend to do this regularly, keeping my gauge at about 1 or 2 each turn early game allowing me to use as many cards as I need to without getting gauge stuck. I can see dungeon world being really good against Drago-wizards.

Katana World (Ninjas)
Katana world is fun to play against as a danger world player, and I'm sure its fun for Adventurers and mixed dungeon world players, because the key to beating katana world is link attacking the center monster with penetrate. The trick with Katana world's defensive spells is that almost none of them world if you link attack the center, and they don't work at all if you link attack the center monster. Ninjas rely on bluffs, so against katana world you must think about every possibility. If there is a world you should know every card available to them, its katana world. Remember at all times the right and left clear field spells, you should almost never attack the left or right zones just in-case they have one of these cards.

Katana World (Skull Warriors)
Skull Warriors are tricky. I'm not entirely sure how to beat them differently from Ninjas even though they play completely differently. They do tend to run the same spells so those rules apply, but I haven't faced skull warriors enough to know how to play against them, except by killing Yamigitsune with removal spells as much as possible.

Ancient World (All builds, but namely Seiger)
Oh Ancient World, the only world that has at least one card against them in every world. How do you beat Ancient World? Two ways. A. Run an anti soul card such as Rolling Stone and Half Kill and B. Penetrate cards. I know I have said Penetrate allot in this article, but this is probably where it is most powerful. The damage from both Penetrate and Lifelink quickly sends an Ancient World player out of the game. Burn also can work, but due to the weak nature of burn and also the fact that you are not actually killing the size 3 for the Lifelink makes it not as effective as Penetrate. Double Attack has the opposite issue, you kill the monster but you don't get the extra damage in. Anti-Soul cards just destroy Ancient World, in fact the only Ancient World Boss card that can survive a Rolling Stone is Lydis the Tyrant, which is something to note as Lydis is slowly getting more scary as Ancient World decks grow. Keep an anti-Ancient World card in your sideboard at all times, especially since Ancient World is starting to pop up more often in tournaments.

Dungeon World (Adventurers)
I love Dungeon World, especially Adventurers. I love the idea, their consistency, the aesthetics and my brother is playing it on the simple idea that Legendary Brave, Tusuku looks like he is cosplaying as Marth from Fire Emblem. However there is one key problem Dungeon World has is general, Gauge. Their main Null uses gauge, their best cards use gauge, search cards use gauge and Dungeon Enemies' key cards use allot of gauge (more on that later). This is a big issue when their best Gauge charger is Dangerous Fuse, because that chance based card can be the difference between winning and losing. I love that card in every way except for the fact it can cost you the game (And that its overpriced on online stores and E-bay, glad my store is a bit more reasonable). Fortunately, each form of Dungeon World has a key monster card that can charge gauge. Adventurers have that in the form of Craftsman, Baku. Every time he link attacks with another adventurer, that player gets +1 gauge. Unfortunately, that paints a big target on his head. That's how you beat Dungeon World, don't let them get gauge. If you can keep their resources tight, then they have less options. Another way to beat Adventurers is stopping link attacks, unfortunately that's difficult when the best card that does that is Duel Law, and that's for Duel Dragons only. If you fear Adventurers, play Duel Dragons as they are the straight up counter to Adventurers. Also, playing a defensive monster with 9000 defense or more can stop them, but there aren't many of those. Killing off the right monsters and keeping the damage output is the most common way to beat them, but their consistency makes them difficult to beat. Do remember their monsters don't tend to go over 5000 attack, so a 6000 defender will force them to link attack. Item destruction also helps. Penetrate is actually weak here. Dungeon world don't tend to have a closed center, so penetrate becomes weaker against adventurers more than most decks.

Dungeon World (Dungeon Enemies)
Dungeon Enemies tend to be a more flexible and consistent version of Ancient World, so you fight them almost the same way. They do, however, have more selective targets than Ancient World. You want to kill Demon Lords before they start throwing down their key spells, such as Demon Lord's Dungeon, but if they have the wand that makes the player a Demon Lord, then you are a little screwed. Item destruction is also key, as their weapons power up their Dungeon Enemies to points that they can't be defeated. If they throw down Meteor Dragon, then you want to be careful about it's ability to destroy attackers. Penetrate and Double Attack will be your best bet, and also keeping their resources down. Don't expect an easy win though, Dungeon enemies get their allies to "respawn" from the drop zone, so that big boss you take down can come back if they have the resources and Demon Lord's Castle.

Dungeon World (Mixed)
I have not seen this deck in action yet outside of the anime, which is shocking because this is the best of the 3 decks on paper. Mixed Dungeon World takes the best of Adventurers and Dungeon Enemies and fused them together into a consistent maze of tricks and abilities, where their only weakness is their slight lack of co-operation of the Adventurers and Dungeon Enemies, but cards like Dragonblade Wielding Sheila Vanna and Magical Fortress, Orser Kleinz make ends meet between them, making the deck deal with almost any threat. Unfortunately they still deal with gauge issues, so keeping them down on the resources can shut them down. The best way of fighting them is killing their monsters while trying to get your own deck off, which is quite effective against most decks, but more so here. Surprisingly enough though, they do have problems beating Ancient World decks, and as more and more people realise this, the more Ancient is being played. This is probably because Mixed can't exactly get enough power to fight Ancient in raw power like Dungeon Enemies can, and doesn't have the raw penetrate power of adventurers to do it that way. If you are using Ancient to counter Dungeon Mixed, make sure you have the spell counter promo card at about 3 copies, you will need it to fight all Dungeon World Decks and other worlds too.

Dragon World (Armordragons in general)
There is a reason I saved Dragon World for last. Due to their over support, THEY HAVE NO CLEAR WEAKNESS! The best way to fight a Dragon World player is simply being a better player than them or fight them like Danger World. Dragon World also has access to the most tech, making them unpredictable and able to counter any deck. However, they still aren't OP as to say (though I do consider Inferno Armor Dragon OP) and they can be defeated. If your up against Dragon World, just play the game, because that's what they are doing. Do keep in mind of the dragon shields, but otherwise, you simply just play the game normally. Jacknife is gauge heavy so you can try stretching their resources, but it isn't much different to normal Armordragons. That's all I got for Armordragons.

Update: Well Dragon does have one clear weakness, their hand is easily diminished, much like Danger World currently. Expect anything but see if you can start stalling them for card advantage. One of the best ways to fight Dragon world is knowing what they have access to and what people tend to use. If you learn that then you can probably predict the opponent and fight them. Also there are now a fair few Dragon counters out there now, so those will help too.

Dragon World (Dragon Knights)
Dragon knights feel like they should be their own world, because they play allot different to Armordragons. They still have the spell over support, but we are still waiting on a Thousand Rapier Clone, so the best way to fight Dragon Knights is surprisingly walling them and attacking center. Dragon Knights are like a mix of Adventurers and Clock Wizards, Link Attack to kill anything decent and die for a greater ability. However, Dragon Knights have access to 3 key cards that can be devastating after about turn 3, Dragon Knight, Vlad Dracula, Dragon Knight, Nobunaga and Dragon Knight, Geronimo. Dracula and Nobunaga have devastating crit values that can be quite scary if your not prepared for them. Geronimo, when there is enough dead things, will destroy anything twice over and can even deal some decent direct damage split in 2 crit chunks.

And that's all I got for you guys. If you have any ideas for improvements of this guide, anything I missed or just straight up disagree with something, message bellow, there is only so much views can do to ones reason to write a blog. Ill be hopefully going into proper world overviews including base decks soon, just for now I'd rather try and get my strategies out there, especially since I have a hard time explaining them by voice. For now however, Giraton Out!

UPDATE: New Worlds! (First impressions)

Darkness Dragon World (Black Dragons/Mixed)
Oh Spectral Strike, how I love you. Darkness Dragon World in general is quite slow. Their low-mild defence doesn't do much, but both Spectral Strike and their counter removal push a more control based play style. They follow the "Kill the monsters before the player mentality" very closely and this makes them so slow, that those few 3 crit monsters allow it to have a bit more speed. Most Black Dragon Decks have that one rush card or 2-4 Shadow Dive cards to push for final damage, but their main playstyle is control, and as an opponent to it, you can exploit this fact through rushing. However, if DDW gets you in a corner there is no escape, and rushing can give them the chance to put you in that corner. This is what I've gotten so far from testing this world.

Darkness Dragon World (Death)
Death However, takes a more aggressive mentality. This is the attribute that has allot of Shadow Dive, and thus their strategy is to rush through closed centre control decks. They will deal allot of damage quickly if you are not ready for them. Fighting them though is either rushing them harder to making them use their hand. A rush deck's greatest weakness is card advantage, to abuse that fact hard. Fighting fire with fire is very risky though as while they are designed to rush, they have the spells to back them up, note this when fighting them.

Legend World (Hero)
Heroes play allot like adventurers, and they want their weapons. You can't do much without their weapon but durendal puts item destruction on hold, so once they have durendal or have access to switch to pridwen, you can't do much against them. Kill their heroes and go for face, and make sure you can keep counter destruction for dire points. if they have the Holy Grail searcher, kill it before it attacks but after they enter the battle phase. if they block it, they waste gauge, if they don't well they lose an attacker and the chance to get the grail. Its a small trick but an important one all the same. DDW seems to be their main weakness at this point.

Legend World (Wylder Sycar)
I probably butchered that name and will continue to do so, this deck is heavy rush. They come out with medium power units and try to take out the opponent in the most flexible way possible. They can stall but they specialise in attacking. Hand is this decks issue so a nice stall will stop them in their tracks. Kill their monsters quickly and you will be fine, but remember, they do have counter spell destruction.

Legend World (Asguard)
Ice, Ice, Baby. Asguard is combo reliant, but once they have their combo started, its very hard to stop it. The Glipinir combo will happen eventually, but the Ragnarok combos are allot more fragile. Spell Destruction of any kind is good here except for Fang Dragon Declaration. You don't want their combo to go off. Rush is also good, because they have a hard time defending when all their good cards are stuck in combo purgatory. If you have gauge removal, that will also work, as their best combos cost at least 4 gauge. Weapons will be their main attacking force starting off unless they are using the Wand, so item destruction will work as well, as chances are they are not running neither Pridwen or Durendal.

Overall the new worlds each have some interesting tricks to it, and I think the main weakness for each of the new worlds is surprisingly themselves, as DDW has Death to outpace Black Dragons and most of the spells for Legend World can be used against its self. Remember that these new world guides are only first impressions, I'll improve them as more testing is done.