Play Styles and How I Play

So with EB02 being out for some time and Set 4 just gone through its pre-releases, I wanted to discuss play styles because allot is going to change in how people play Buddyfight. Play styles are, well, your style of playing the game. They are different for every person but there are two main factors: Personal preference and what deck you play. Your deck will be more influential in how you play, but everyone's play style is different because everyone is different in how they think in one way or another. What you should realise and hopefully you have, is that your play style WILL CHANGE over time, even with the same kind of deck. Also how you play determines hat deck you should try out. Work out how you play before deciding your main deck to go with, because even as worlds are still coming out you should work out how you play before deciding to go with a new deck.


Danger Represent!

I will use my own experiences as an example. If you don't know by now I am primarily a Danger World player, particularly Armorknights. I am also a budget player, meaning I can't just get 4 of every card. Hence the cheaper my deck the better, and I like to build deck lists before buying anything for them. So before extra booster 2, I had a very interesting play style that worked well. I would use danger's high stats, particularly in defence, to defend against the initial onslaught of my opponent's deck then swing back with my own force of creatures. While my deck went through many renditions, including a duel dragon build that didn't really work well, I myself never changed my play style from what was working. Once making top 8 during the buddy challenge and being one of the few danger world players there, I was stuck with it.

So what happened once new support came to danger world? Well initially (and you can see this on the Wiki page of Danger World) I crashed, unable to work out a deck that fit the play style because there was so little monsters that supported it, but way too many spells that fit a little too well. I tried my hardest to create a new deck to fit that play style, but every build had too many cards and was certainly not consistent, very evident when I could finally test it on online simulators. I had to work out something that would be consistent, but powerful as well, oh and could deal with dungeon world, as it had been the main weakness of my previous deck. Then one particular card changed it all, Explosive Axe, Ricdeu Demon Slay. This was a weapon that would change my play style from an explosive shell player to one of consistent aggression. For those who don't know, this weapon has 6000 power, 3 critical and only at the cost of one gauge. The catch is that once equipped, you can't call monsters to the centre. My initial reaction was "LOOK HOW WELL THIS CAN PAIR WITH BATTLE SPIRIT UNITE!" But that quickly changed to "I don't need a centre. Who needs a centre?" When I realised how much the spells worked at keeping your enemies at bay it changed my entire perception of Danger worked.
Danger originally was an under dog in the meta not because it was bad, but because its support was not what the world promised. Danger gave the impression of risk taking, rushing down your opponent and ignoring centres with penetrate. Unfortunately only the latter was really true, as Danger's support actually ended up being learning when and where to attack and defend, which was a theory I whole heartedly followed till extra booster 2. However when this new set did come out, it was closer to the initial idea for danger, leave the centre  open and try to win as quickly as possible. And why was this? The spells allowed you to not worry about having a centre or killing enemy monsters before the player, and let the spells do the work of defending for you. The only thing danger needs now is a more consistent draw engine, which they have only one of and that's Survival Chance. This is because out of the meta decks, other than non-thunder knights dragon world, Danger seems to have the least draw power, but uses their hand quickly. As such, I am currently working on both my deck and play style to either work around this, or to get Survival Chance to work.



You will be mine. Oh yes, you
will be mine.

And now I get to Darkness Dragon World. At first I hated the idea that Dragon World was getting a Shadow Paladin copy, so I didn't want to play this. But then they threw in one little ability that fit my previous play style a little too well, Spectral Strike. For those who don't know spectral strike deals X amount of damage to the opponent when it kills something, in the same way penetrate does, only its not reliant on critical values. As soon as I saw this ability, I was conflicted. When I went into buddyfight my main strategy was to kill all the monsters before attacking the player unless there was a way to win, and I had learnt this from hearthstone, and while pre-EB02 Danger allowed me to do this well, Spectral Strike took this to a whole new level. If you haven't worked it out by now, Spectral Strike allows you to kill monsters and deal damage without ever having to go on the offensive by attacking the opponent. It also means in one attack you are fulfilling 2 conditions of the "best out of 3" theory, Killing a monster, and dealing damage. This ability, I thought, was designed for me. Now as more and more of DDW has been announced to the point where we know all the cards as I'm writing this and the set is only a few days away, I am confident I am playing this world, but my new strategy from Danger world may clash a bit with my old one, meaning now I must come up with the optimal play style for DDW, and I'm ready for the challenge.

So for those who want it spelled out for them, Here is what I have learned about play styles: Balance how you play and how your deck plays, and evolve or change your play style around the meta, your deck and your own experiences. In some ways your play style is part of your identity, so its bound to change overtime, just remember to not be afraid of change, because with every new release the game evolves, and so should you.