The Buddyfight Boot Camp Experiment: Day 1

So the worlds are coming up for all busiroad events and I have to prepare for it in the best way possible. However, I also have a few friends I help regularly that play Buddyfight. I build their decks for them, I teach them not only how to play but how to be good at the game, in fact they are the reason I made this blog. However, lately I've been having trouble pushing them to become better than myself, and they complain they can't beat me. As such I came up with a plan to help push them to their ultimate TCG potential. That is the Buddyfight Boot Camp Experiment (not that they know this is an experiment). I have 3 subjects that I must make into the ultimate Buddyfight players and be able to compete at my level or above in a 3 week plan. Here is the plan:

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 THIS POST IS SERIOUSLY OUTDATED!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.

The Australian Buddy Challenge

So I entered the buddy challenge in Australia and man it was a great experience so today I'm going to tell you all of my experiences. However, this is just a brief overview, I will have my entire thoughts will be on the next episode of the Future Fighters Cast podcast.

So first, I did not win, but I did get to the top 8. There were about 37 players with about half playing Dragon World, about another quarter playing Wizards (am unsure if there were any 72 Pillars entered), and the rest were split between Katana and Danger with no Ancient World. The top 8 consisted of 1 magic world deck, 3 Danger world decks (including my own) and 4 Dragon World decks. I think all my games were against Dragon World, put it was fun anyway. One battle I had would have me lose through Galvanic Feather Dragon burning me to death as I tried to kill it with Khan only to be stopped by an endless stream of dragon shields. I won the next two matches against that player, but man that was a fun loss that I didn't even think was possible. The games were really tough (except for one preliminaries match), the giveaways were in the plenty and the set up was professional and had no problems with judging, between matches or the set up. On terms of players skills, i was one of the better players there, with the top player beating me through top deck and the 3rd place player completely thrashing me, I find it difficult to imagine there were many more players that where of their level. However, for the average, casual player, you weren't going to win often. Out of what i saw out of the Weiss side of things, they had twice as many players but ran just as smoothly, Neko Cards employees and volunteers know how to run a smooth event.

So thats just an overview of the event, if you want my deck list its here: http://www.tradecardsonline.com/im/showDeck/deck_id/528862 and I will have more to talk about in the podcast, which will be on YouTube on this channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI-g6hJUYqw-lzCQ_9SMa5Q my slightly more updated deck list is also on that channel, but it didn't change much. I might even have an interview with the winner.

Competative Attitude and Sportsmanship

This will be a difficult topic for both me and you, dear reader. Today I will be writing about how to think competitively, but also how to be respectful of your opponents and rivals. Trading card games have reached the point where they can be considered a mental sport, much like video games are turning into full blown events. Magic the gathering has massive events streamed to the world with high production values, amazing commentators and high level prize pools. Buddyfight seems to be trying to take Vanguards trail and rush its way into a competitive scene, evident with the buddy challenge giving away plane tickets to even bigger events when the game is not even at its 3rd biggest set. This is a risky move by Busiroad, and I'm really excited for it. As I write this I am preparing for Australia's buddy challenge in Melbourne, and I've been training and reefing both my skills and deck for the big day, and I feel both confident and anxious, which honestly is a weird

Buddyfight Metagame Analysis: What it is and how to do it!

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.

Deck Building Basics

Note: This article is of my opinion and written for beginners only. As such, this article is to be used as a guide only, not a set way of how to play. Aspects of this guide will change for various reasons.

One thing I have noticed in Buddyfight is that building a deck isn't as clear as Vanguard. You have your world then your Attribute (example: Dragon knights, Armordragons, 72 Pillars are all attributes) and maybe an Archetype ( to work with but that's all that guides you. This means its rare for your deck to be exactly the same as someone else without net-decking (The act of copying a deck list off the internet) and I like that. Unfortunately this has led to people putting random decks together and unsure what to do. So here is a simple guide to help those having trouble building decks.

Card Advantage and Resource Management

In every card game these are three key words that give glee to all who play, Draw A Card. These amazing words have been the basis of many powerful cards in many games. Any card that adds to what you can do is spectacular, the more specific the better. So buddyfight is no exception, but it makes it a deviously rare ability and never for free. So lets look at it shall we.

First of all, let us define card advantage and resource management. Card advantage is simply this, having more cards than your opponent. The more cards you have the more things you can do. Quite simple but getting such advantage is difficult. This is where resource management comes in. Resource management is getting the most out of what you have. You have to find the most effective card to play that wont cost you too much resources. Your resources come in the form of your hand and gauge. There is also field advantage, but in buddyfight, your field can be cleared quickly so it isn't so important. If you have anything in the field at the start of your turn then your opponent is either focusing on dealing damage to you or is losing.

So now to see how to gain card advantage and resources. There are 4 cards in set 1 that are good examples of how gaining cards is tough. That’s Survival Chance (at 5 or less life and 1 gauge, you may draw 2 cards but can only be used once), Dragonic Grimore (at 5 or less life, you can use this card to discard your hand and draw 3 cards), Nice One (for 1 gauge, you may draw 2 cards but can't use it again) and Devil Advantage (this cards allows you to get 2 72 pillars cards from your drop zone to your hand for 1 gauge).  All 4 take something away from resources and take specific conditions to get more advantage. Now you could argue that Dragonic Grimore is not much of an advantage card but it either can be used to replace a hand for better options or just gives you straight up more cards so I consider it an advantage booster. These cards may not be staples, but they can all give you the upper hand in battle, so maybe some good sideboard options.

So here we go on monsters that could give you an advantage. The abilities Soul Guard and Double Attack have been staple abilities for a reason. Soul Guard keeps your monster on the field for longer, and if it lasts the opponents turn then it can attack again. If it doesn't last then your opponent has used their resources to get rid of it. Double Attack is the opposite and the ultimate counter to Soul Guard. It allows you to attack twice, which can clear fields, beat Soul Guard, open centres then deal damage, simply double your crit and, best of all, makes your opponent needs to use more counter cards to stop it entirely. It simply gives you advantage by taking away your opponents.

Now we get to how resources should be used. Under current abilities, 1 Gauge = 0.75 life, 1 life = 1 draw and 1 gauge + 1 hand card = 2 draw. As long as a card meets those costs, it is a worth while ability. Do remember though that life its self is a resource and the goal of the game is to make your opponent run out of this, don’t use it up quickly yourself. The trick with resource management is that you must pick the best cards to combat the situation with the least cost. Don’t think vanilla (cards with no abilities) cards are useless, most of the time they are more appropriate for the job and cost less for it too. Size 3s tend to take allot of resources, but can also waste allot your opponents resources to kill it. so remember that when working out what card you want to use.

So now that you know about card advantage and resource management you can hopefully see this being done by all players and help you do it yourself. It is a key aspect to all card games and buddyfight tests ones knowledge and ability to manage it. Practice managing it and you will earn the key to victory.