Armordragon

If Dragon World is Bushiroad's most beloved World, then Armordragon is Bushi's most beloved archetype. They have, once again, so much support and so many options that it's honestly boring to write about what they can do. It's more appropriate to write about what they can't do. I'll devote the following paragraph to list out the strategies that are not viable with Armordragon decks before going into the specific analysis of cards.



I'm done.

Original Flavor

Drum Bunker Dragon is the trademark monster of the entire series. He's the Pikachu of Buddyfight. It would feel wrong to start off this article without mentioning him, so I'll leave his glorious picture to the side here for all of you to gaze on. He's a really great card too, a very cheap price to pay for top-soulcharge with decent stats and a nice crit. You can literally splash any number of these guys in any Armordragon deck to gain a bit of everything; field control, pressure, tank, you name it.

He's a bit boring to talk about, so let's move on to another Drum Bunker. "Barrier Breaker" is a pretty interesting card. He has Penetrate with 3 crit, which normally would be an amazing deal. His problem is that he's 2 gauge to play, which is quite a lot. Penetrate, advantage-wise, is similar to Double Attack and will gain +crit advantage if it attacks the center. This way, he gets +0.5 advantage when he is called and kills a monster in the center. Pretty good, right?

Piece the heavens with
your drill!

Actually, no. First of all, his defense is crap. He's definitely not going to survive next turn, and he's not going to pose a problem for your opponent to clear, either. The second issue is that he is a Size 2. While this may be good since you can call him to the side, it also means that he's liable to be easily removed or bounced by spells. He's not a bad card in any sense, but the amount of risk he incurs to gain that extra damage is not worth it. Armordragons especially have much better options.

Similarly to the overview article, I'll just go ahead and list a bunch of cards that are just ridiculously good and won't go into detail on them. Pile Bunker Dragon. Thunder Knights, Halberd Dragon. Bronze Shield Dragon. Rising Flare Dragon. Again, these aren't supposed to be cards you run 4-of in every deck. These are cards that can be ran in every deck with great success because their versatility and effectiveness are just amazing.

Prepare yourself to be
reaped

Purgatory Knights, Death Sickle Dragon. He's just huge. 2 gauge for Double Attack is just the beginning, because his stats are simply godly. If we assume that Phalanx Dragon has the base vanilla stats when we reduce his cost to nothing, we see that the base stats for a vanilla Size 3 is 7000/2/7000. Death Sickle Dragon has 9000/2/7000 for free because 2 gauge should pay for Double Attack and nothing else. His defense guarantees protection from the vast majority of Size 2 monsters, and his Double Attack needs no explanation. Most importantly, he's really cheap to play, and doesn't hinder any sort of main gambit that your deck may run. As the Japanese say: "Simple is best".

MY CHEST IS A FACE

More popular of a Size 3 choice is Inferno Armor Dragon. He's also a 2 gauge for an on-call top-soulcharge x2. His soul doesn't protect him, but rather gives him a removal effect which is pretty sweet. His stats are decent too, so there's nothing to complain about. What makes him a terror is his on-call effect. You can get a free kill with his effect as long as you run an Armordragon deck. Assuming that you have about 16 spells/weapons without an Armordragon trait, the probability of getting 1 Armordragon into soul is at worst about 87%. If we bump it up to 20 non-Armordragons the probability of getting the kill is still better than 79%. As in, pretty high. Not dependable, but high enough so that the expected gain from this effect is very good. His destruction also has no restrictions whatsoever. He can come in, bomb a monster, attack, and then use his soul to get rid of a monster on the following turn. If you wait to use the soul, even if he dies, his call will still have been a wash. You can afford to not use his soul and leave him as this huge threat that can destroy anything your opponent has to offer the following turn without losing any sort of advantage.

The Royal Mausoleum

It's time for a ruling clarification! Dragon's Seal is a stupidly confusing card, because apparently Buddyfight's counter system works completely differently from other countering systems I'm used to (Yugioh). Instead of a "chaining" or a "layering" idea where one counter is resolved on top of another, and each resolution affects the following resolutions, Buddyfight uses a priority system where each resolution doesn't affect each other. This isn't due to the counter itself, but more specifically to the call cost. As long as the call cost is fulfilled, the effect is guaranteed to activate, regardless of what counters happen (unless there's a type of nullification somewhere).

For Dragon's Seal, this specifically means that when your opponent declares an attack, and you use this spell to call a monster to your center, you're still going to take the damage. You've been set as the target for the attack, and once that's happened there's no changing it (the "attack cost" has been paid). If you want to use this card to guard yourself, you need to activate it before your opponent attacks. You can't use this as a counter to an attack (unlike Yugioh, where Special Summoning a monster will stop the attack and allow the opponent to redirect the attack). Keep this in mind!

Anyways, given a deck that's made of 20 non-Armordragon cards, the chance of getting 1 Armordragon under the Seal is 90.7%. This spell should never fail. You even have a 55% of getting 2, which gives you the option of choice. As always, this is calculated with a full deck and the worst-caste scenario, so as you draw and charge and compress your deck you need to adjust your probability on the fly. This card can be used after you attack to Special Call another monster to attack with (Counter spells can be cast at any time). This is probably the best use of this rather unique spell. It has no call cost, which means that you are -1 from hand to special call 1 monster when the time is right. It's a wash, but there's so many opportunities and options for this spell that it's worth utilizing it.

Also, thanks to the new ruling clarification, you can check the soul of Dragon Seal anytime you want, so you won't look stupid activating it and getting nothing.

Do these pink nails
make me gorgeous?

With the advent of the Jackknife Legion, we're introduced to some interesting "evolutions" of the base Jackknife Dragon. One of them is "Aggressor". He has 4 crit and 8000 power on a Size 2 body. That alone is amazingly impressive, and Soulguard is like a cherry on top. Of course, when talking about Soulguard quality, 5000 defense is actually quite poor. You want something at least 6000 defense, like "Thunder Storm". While "Aggressor" has the offense and the crit to back it up, "Thunder Storm" makes his worth known by granting an ability on the right or the left. You can pay 2 life to destroy 1 monster, a perfect wash. However, since the payment is in life and not gauge, this is actually preferable since gauge is precious with Jackknives. "Thunder Storm"'s 6000 defense with Soulguard is what truly makes him fearsome. Good luck clearing that easily.

Jackknife, use Thunderbolt!

A thing to note about the Jackknives: you never want to actually play the "evolution" on top of the base form. You almost always want to use the base form's skill to search out the evolution. Firstly, this gives you the option of getting any evo you want. Secondly, doing so will grant you a wash instead of a -0.5 minus. When you search with Jackknife Dragon's skill, you pay 2 gauge to gain 1 card. When you use the evolution's skill to evolve Jackknife, you -1 from hand and pay 1 gauge (-1.5) for the same +1 effect. Very not worth it. This is also why you don't want to run very many evolutions in a Jackknife deck, so that you don't end up drawing them.

The Armordragons are held together by three passionate songs, or so the story goes. The songs all have super long names, so I'll just give them names of my own: Bad, Decent, and Best.

The song of self-immolation

Bad is "Song of Burning March". You set it for a cost of -1.5. Then, once every turn, you can pay 1 gauge when a monster is called to the left or the right to deal 1 direct damage, a net +0.25 transaction. Okay, so you'll be able to pay off the set cost in 6 turns after spending a total of 7 gauge. Uh, seriously? Secondly, there's even a call restriction. Only to the left or the right? Really now? I don't even know why this card exists. If you have that much gauge to burn, you're better off playing Dragobulk Stormschlag.

The song of magic numbers

Decent is "Proud Song of Soul". It's the same -1.5 set cost. This time, every Armordragon gains a permanent +2000 power (+0.5 in stats). It's not bad, and it will pay for itself in quality over time. You can change 4000 Size 1's to 6000 sweepers and 8000 Size 2's to 10000 clear-everything-in-the-world-except-Tempest-Enforcer's. You can get quite a bit out of this card, especially when paired with something like Pile Bunker Dragon.

The song of victory

Best is "Song of Ancient Lands". The same -1.5 set cost again, but dear Dragon Lord what is this godly effect. Every Armordragon you call after this gives you a +0.5 costless. Every single time. As many times per turn. You can pump yourself from no life to a ridiculous number within a few turns. I don't care if it says you can only have 1 on the field at any given time, you're going to run 3-4 of these in any given deck, because you want to play it immediately and always. Your opponent is definitely going to want to remove this with some kind of spell or effect, so it's good to keep some backups. You can play an entirely vanilla deck, run this at 4, and beat the crap out of the majority of decks out there.

How to (not) be ninja

Bushiroad wouldn't be Bushiroad if they didn't print some noobtrap cards. Let's say hello to one of them right now. Slashknife Dragon has some pretty crappy stats along with a very low critical number. His ability is supposed to make it up, but...it doesn't. You pay 1 gauge to allow this monster to attack your opponent directly. According to the advantage scale, this is a +0.25 every turn, which isn't too bad. Bzzzt! If you just believed that, then you haven't looked carefully enough. Slashknife Dragon gains this +0.25 by sacrificing an attack, which is an entire -1. When he could have been clearing the field of a monster, Slashknife Dragon was trying to feel important by attacking your opponent directly with an insignificant damage value while wasting gauge simultaneously. Don't glare at it too much; noobtraps are delicate cards, and they get insulted easily.

I stand before you all

At the point of writing this article, Dungeon World spoilers have been popping up like wildfire and there are a number of Adventurer (I prefer "Boukensha") monsters - well, they're not really monsters but they are... - that directly promote link attacking by gaining some effect to make up for the -1 of link attacking a monster. Well, before there were Adventurers, we had this guy. The OG link attack promoter, Emigurette Dragon gets an effect if he can destroy a card called restand. Of course, if he has 2000 power he's not likely to actually destroy anything...hence a link attack. You can pair this guy with a Thousand Rapier Dragon to rip through a 7000 wall in your opponents center, then restand Emigurette for a 3 crit slap to your opponent. It may seem like wasting 3 crit to clear a monster before direct attacking is a waste, but Emigurette actually gains advantage by doing so. If you use it wisely, Emigurette can be an amazing card to play for free damage, about 3 every turn. And he certainly makes up for link attacking.

He could be your knaifu

There are noobtraps, then there are counter noobtraps. These are the cards that seem like noobtraps at first, but then turn out to be not as noobtrap as previously thought. Psychic Knife Dragon fits the bill pretty well. At first it's like "Amazing! You can clear any monster with 4000 or less defense!" And then you realize that you have to rest Psychic Knife, which is the same as attacking. You basically made a 4000 power attack. Wow. That's like, so ordinary for a Size 1. Even Bear Trap Dragon can do that, AND it has 2 crit. So you then dismiss Psychic Knife Dragon as a Bushiroad noobtrap. And in a sense it still is, but not attacking actually has it's redeeming points. Firstly, you won't have to worry about triggering any on-attack effects like Shields. You're more than likely going to clear the monster without any issue. Secondly, you won't have to worry about random counters popping up and screwing you over. And thirdly, you can call Psychic Knife Dragon (wash), rest it to clear the monster (+1), then call over it (wash, since you called over a rested monster), and then proceed to attack with the new monster. You can essentially treat Psychic Knife Dragon as a spell that reads "[Act] Destroy one of your opponent's monsters with 4000 defense or less" that can also be placed in the center to guard for a turn and has the ability to deal damage to your opponent if necessary. Not bad, if you ask me.

Lady Luck is smiling

But lets actually showcase another noobtrap. Bloody Card Dragon is super cool. His art is freaking amazing and his concept of drawing 1 card for 2 gauge is sweet. But that's not what he actually does. Let's go through the effect...on-call cost of 1 gauge. When that happens, you can choose to choose a card from your gauge (-0.5) and put it in your hand (+1). It's a wash, but any wash that gets cards into the hand is a worthy wash. However...this effect probably sucks. Why? Because in a normal deck, you're going to be gauging cards you don't need at the moment. Why would you run a card that just grabs cards you purposely threw away moments ago? Sure, in the late-game this card becomes really useful because you can grab whatever you want, but that means that this card in the beginning is completely useless. You can't even call it for free, you have to pay 1 gauge for crap stats and if you don't follow through the guy's useless. So he's really cool, and I really want to see more cards like this, but this specific card is a noobtrap.

He's over 9000!

Promo cards have a tendency to either be crap or be completely broken. However, few cards embody the idea of "broken" like Drum Bunker Dragon "10000". This avatar of Drum has the highest power of any Size 2 monster and the third highest power of any monster, period. What's his call cost? Oh, 1 gauge only. You can only call him to the right, but so what? There's no way you would want to call this guy to the center, he's way too threatening of a pressure column to begin with. Ah, did I mention he has magic Size 1 defense and 3 crit as well? Just for math's sake, if we take 6000/2/6000 as the base vanilla stats for a Size 2 Armordragon then Drum "10000" has a +0.5 in critical and a +1 in power, making him a +1 on-call without any questions asked.

He's the one that read
too many S&M books

While only Tialvette can hit 6000 power constantly as a Size 1, there are other ways to make this magic Size 2 power. Ironchain Dragon can use 1 gauge to give -3000 defense to any opponent's monster. Which is quite similar to buffing himself by 3000, meaning Ironchain Dragon is a costed Size 1 6000 power when it matters. Considering that you should be more than willing to pay 1 gauge for a constant 6000 power, Ironchain Dragon seems like a good opportunity card. But his effect is much more flexible than just straight up 6000 vanilla power. You can decrease the defense of a monster by 3000 and then use a different monster to clear it...without attacking yourself. Here's another way to look at this card. It's paying 1 gauge for an extra 3000 power attack on a monster that turn. You can use this effect creatively, like in conjunction with Emigurette or Pile Bunker, to get the most out of Penetrate or Double Attack.

Gotta go faster

Armordragons get a palette of interesting spells that grant a variety of effects. Most are washes or minuses for opportunity gains and situational advantages. The one card I'd like to choose out of all of them to look at is Dragospeed. After paying 2 gauge and 1 card (-2), you can designate a Size 2 or less monster on the field to directly attack the opponent for the turn. So, in addition to the -2 of casting the spell, you're also giving up an attack of one of your monsters to deal direct damage. Obviously, you can choose a 3-crit Size 2 to directly attack the opponent for game...but the overall loss from this strategy is a -0.5 in addition to a forced attack that leaves field advantage in your opponent's hand. Basically, this has to be a game-ender, and 3-crit isn't going to be enough. It's not like you could combo this with Gargantua Punisher either. If there was only a Size 2 monster that could Double Attack, then this card would...huh?

*checks BT03 spoilers*

...

I guess you'll just have to wait for the update before I can finish that statement.

Set 3 comes out with a huge boatload of support to - surprise - Dragon World. Actually, boatload might not be the appropriate word. Let me rephrase. Dragon World gets a shit ton of support in the form of two entire new legion/archetypes and upgrades to almost all the vanillas. I'm not going to spend time on the vanillas, but with additions from 6000/1/3000 to 9000/1/6000, it would be wise to take the time and reevaluate your vanilla staples. Also I'm totally going to have to rewrite my entire magic numbers article because guess what? It's not 5000/6000/8000 anymore. Joy.

Stand by me!

Jackknife players have been beside themselves in excitement over their newest evolution, "Beistand". "Be I Stand" gives Jackknife Dragon +1000 in power in exchange for lowering his crit by 1. That -0.5 means nothing, however, in light of his ability to scavenge a Dragon Shield. When you evolve Jackknife with his ability, the Soulguard is a wash so Beistand's ability is a +0.5 overall. But what a +0.5. Shields are by far the most broken cards in the whole game, and as if 8 shields weren't enough, Beistand can grant an additional shield of whichever color you want. Need more gauge? Grab a Blue Shield. Want more life? Grab a Green Shield. Oh, since he does this on-evolve, you can do this combo per copy of Beistand you run, per time you evolve it. That's right, if you wanted to you could Skies Beistand back to your hand (minus his soul) and grab another shield.

Luckily Bushiroad saw this coming, so there's two catches for doing this. Catch #1: you only have max 4 of the Jackknife base form, so it's not like you're going to get more than 4 uses of Beistand even if you Skies him. Catch #2: Beistand costs a lot more to evolve from hand. As in, an entire -1 more. You're definitely going to wince every time you draw into this card. So the trade-off is that the more Beistands you run, the more it's going to cost on average to revive a shield. That's okay, you're still going to run this broken dragon at 2. If you can't win a game with 10 shields, then review your playing strategy and not your deck.

Thunder Knights is the new legion of Armordragons introduced this set. I say "legion" because they actually don't have a "Thunder Knight" attribute - they're actually Golden Dragons (as if that meant anything). Anyways, the important thing is that Halberd now has a family. Yay.

Aufladen, blitzkrieg!

This legion is led by Kommandeur Fahne, a Germanic-looking dragon who can motivate his men - er, dragons - soooo much, they all gain +1 crit and Move. Damn, I want that kind of charisma. He also gets it himself too, which makes him a 5000/3/5000 with Move for 1 gauge. Whew. This makes the ideal field scenario for Thunder Knights akin to the "triple offensive" that the Buddyfight anime always squawks about. You have Kommandeur to the right, a weapon equipped, and a Size 1 Thunder Knights to the left. Since they all have Move, you can use the Size 1 to guard on the following turn. Thunder Knights maximize the field like no other deck. Please don't run Dragobreaker though. A conditional Dragobreach for the same cost is not really that good.

Since Kommandeur Fahne can grant Move to any of his partners, you want to combo him with a Size 1 who doesn't already gain Move. Notably Broadsword Dragon, with his great stats, can be used with Fahne to be Moved to the center.

Sword, bastard-sized

The big baddie of the legion is Thunder Knights, Bastard-sword Dragon. No, this dragon isn't a douchebag, he has a sword called a bastard sword or a longsword as most people know it by. Them English and their archaic names. Anyways, he's basically a weaker version of Death Sickle Dragon who's been idealized for the Thunder legion with the ability Move. You can easily combo this guy with a weapon and still get center-lane guard. This is undoubtedly helpful as Bastard Sword is the only Thunder Knight with Double Attack, but surprisingly the majority of the heavy lifting isn't done by this dude.

The tempest in my hand

It's done by this guy. Drum is back, dressed all fancy and nice in his new legion costume. Similar to the old Drum, Thunder Drum is 1 gauge for top-sou- sike! Hand-soulcharge. Aww. No ridiculous free advantage? Actually, if Drum got top-soulcharge he'd be so broken it wouldn't be funny. Just look at all the abilities he gets. Move. Penetrate. Soulguard. He's like a Swiss Army Knife. He facilitates every combo available in the deck and Penetrates on top of that, forming all sorts of confusing pressure for your opponent.

The coolest thing about the Move-Soulguard combination is the ability to avoid taking Penetrate damage. Usually, calling something like Drum Bunker to the center against a deck with Penetrate options is downright stupid, since you never know when they could pull it out and make the most out of a weak Soulguard center. Since Move activates at the beginning of Battle Phase after all the monsters have been called, you can appropriately decide whether or not you want to let Drum Tank for you or to let him stay on the side as a pressure column. The variety of options he gives makes him the all-star of the deck. Since he can't be run with Kommandeur Fahne, you want to combo him with one of the Size 1 Mover-gainers.

Target, locked on!

Honestly, Thunder legion would never have been a thing without the following two cards. Yeah, Kommandeur is good and so is Drum, but it's only because this frontline has a row of archers to back them up. People keep denying that there's such thing as free advantage. Uh, Dragoarcher is free advantage. You call him when there's another Thunder Knight (wash) to draw a card. +1. +1. +1 +1 +1 +1. You get a free card, you get a free card. You all get a free card! His power is kinda low, but he still has a great 2 crit.

The other card is Thunder Formation. This card needs no explanation. You can Move a monster during your opponent's Battle Phase to topgauge. For each Thunder Formation you have. How much does this card cost to set? Nothing? Oh, okay. Okay.

Thunder legion,
ASSEMBLE!!

I swear if that were its only ability it would be good enough to run. Nope; it gets another skill on top of that. During the final phase, you can destroy the card (wash, since you cast the card earlier as a -1 investment) and pay 4 gauge (-2) to mill 3, call any Thunder Knights milled, and restart the Battle Phase. To clarify, when you restart the Battle Phase, you will also gain another Final Phase. Now, the chance of getting a Thunder Knight off of a mill 3 is really high. Given a standard 20-non Thunder Knight deck, you have about 80.3% to get 1 Thunder Knight and 36.2% chance to get 2 Thunder Knights. You're probably not going to get three, so if you do please buy a lottery ticket. Since you can attack and then get another Final Phase, you could theoretically use this card again and push for game. If you somehow have 8 gauge (not impossible with Thunder Knights, actually).

Millions slashed,
nothing resisted

I've saved the best for last, however. Remember what I said about Dragospeed being only usable if there was a Size 2 with Double Attack? Million Rapier Dragon has Double Attack and 2 crit. You can only give this monster soul if you have Thousand Rapier in the drop. Which is wonderful, since Thousand Rapier is the second best Size 1 vanilla Dragon World has to offer (best is - surprise! - Blade Chakram Dragon). Since he pays only 1 gauge, his Soulguard itself gives him +0.5 advantage. And then he gets Double Attack as long as he has soul. By himself, he's ridiculous already. Then if you Dragospeed this French dude, you can deal 4 direct damage to your opponent for -1 card, -2 gauge, -1 attack. Do you see what I see? This combo is Gargantua Punisher as a spell! To have this option on top of a great vanilla without having to pay so much gauge shows off the best of Dragon World vanilla.

Who needs some saving?

Jackknives once again get a new evolution. Say hello to your "Savior"! Actually, to be quite honest, I don't really see how this Jackknife is supposed to save anything. His special ability is Move, but as we all know Move is not something we really care about on a Jackknife when we can get Penetrate, field clear, and shield salvage. You can do that cute Dragobond Move tactic with "Savior", but that's about it. At least he's a good option to have and might lend himself to more defensive-type builds.

Extra Booster 2 gives us another Armordragon legion. When Thunder Knights aren't even that good and need more support. Uhh...okay? Blue Sky Knights are a legion all about healing and gaining more and more life. Without a single option to convert all that life to other resources. In other words, they're just gaining life meaninglessly.

The arrow of war

I would actually be okay with this if Blue Sky Knights have good quality and can extend their field presence over the many turns that so much extra life buys. But alas, nope. No Double Attacker or top-soulcharger. Also, without a single draw engine, this ensures that Blue Sky Knights will never be able to draw enough cards to win. You'll be sitting at 20 life with zero cards in hand staring at a full field that you will never be able to clear. It's honestly really sad.

Their leader is Crimson Arrow Dragon, a Size 3. He's immediately inferior to Kommandeur Fahne because, well, he has like zero threat potential. On-call gain 2 life if there's a Blue Sky Knight in the drop zone - which means you need to actually be running Blue Sky Knights for him to work. That alone makes him bad. Okay, so he's actually decent math-wise and gets a free Penetrate at the cost of -1000 power (gauge-cost and life-gain trade). But Penetrate with 2-crit on a Size 3 is pretty lackluster.

I believe I can fly

But oh man. The big news is Drum. Oh man. Drum. I honestly do not believe my eyes. Here, on the Bushiroad Cardlist page, I see a Drum that actually sucks. Never did I think this day would come. I mean, look at him. 5000/2/3000 on a Size 2 is pretty bad. Add a hand-soulcharge and not a top-soulcharge, slap on a restriction that the soul can only be Blue Sky Knight, and we've got an ugly specimen of crap on our hands. Oh, he costs 1 gauge to call. All of this, for a measly +1 life on attack. Really? Really? Just compare him to the other Drums. This is unbelievable. I'd expect better stuff from commons. This card better be an uncommon or something...whut. Double Rare?!?!? How terrifying. This card alone is honestly the only reason I'm not buying any EB02 packs. Pulling this card would make me cry.

Though he looks the most legit out of all the Drums so far. What a pity.

Only half-decent sky knight

Sadly, the rest of the legion fares little better, although they are much more usable. We have the life-gainers-when-your-center-is-open monsters at Size 2 and 1. The Size 2, Slash Eagle Dragon, almost completely outclasses Drum in every way besides rarity, sporting better power and a more consistent effect. The Size 1, Slenje Dragon, is a nice tech in Jackknife decks for the life gain. Seeker Penguin Dragon fills Gummy Slime's niche in Dragon World, and the rest of the legion is just vanillas. I suppose you could also count the Flying Dragon Shield as a legion card too, but that's just sad.

On the topic of the life-gaining legion, I might as well cover their associated weapon, which appropriately sucks just as much. Dragonblade Dragowing has 1000 less power than Dragobreach and doesn't even get the extra crit permanently. You have to gain life every turn in order to bump it to 3 crit. I say just freaking pay that extra life and get it for good.

Side note: the moment Blue Sky Dragon Knights get a life-to-gauge or life-to-draw converter, their legion will become much stronger. But until then they suck like nothing else.

My hands are big

Super Armordragons never really impressed me, but Gargantua Blade Dragon is a pretty interesting specimen. His on-call ability (for 3 gauge) allows you to salvage 2 weapons of any kind. -1.5 in gauge, +2 in hand, so a +0.5 overall. Since Gargantua Blade's stats are actually slightly better than expected, this ends up being an overwhelming win overall. Although you'd be wondering what you'd use 2 extra weapons for when you've purposely allowed them to hit your drop earlier. Well, Gargantua Blade's second ability allows you to use weapons as a 1 for 1 trade to destroy any...any card? Wait, I'm not hallucinating, right? Any card! Damn, that's freaking good.

So not only are you getting a net gain by calling Gargantua Blade, but you're also putting to use any extra weapons you might have in your hand. As well as automatically guaranteeing 2 free destructions on-call. Even if they don't have monsters to kill, you can always pop their weapon or a set spell. And no matter what, you'll plus to hand. Whichever way you spin it, this card is a great improvement over Inferno Armor Dragon in both flexibility and destructive power. Of course, it means that you're going to be running an abnormally absurd amount of weapons. Upwards of eight, at least. Ah, if only Dragon World had Equipment Change. We would be so broke.

Anyways, Punisher Blade sounds so badass.

I know~ You're gold~

But unfortunately the triple-rare show gets completely stolen by Jackknife "Gold Ritter". Ah come on, this card looks way too awesome to even be a thing. Unfortunately, Goldritter is not without its issues, and believe me, there are a lot of them. Thanks to Jackknife support going through the roof, getting Goldritter out is actually the least of your concerns. A well-built deck, along with a decent opening hand, can get this boss out by T3. So you need to focus on what you do after he's out. Because no matter how amazing this card is, the main problem is that you suddenly become limited to a single attack. Yes, it's a freaking ridiculous 5-crit Penetrate attack, but it's still a single attack. Which means a single negate will save you every turn, and against certain builds that literally can regain their negates every turn (specifically my totally awesome Hero build), Goldritter becomes completely useless.

Get him, Berserker! - Illya

Thankfully, your 10K defense and link attack reduction should be enough to stall the game out until you've all but won the game through endless Penetrate whacking. But you still need to focus on having options even after you've committed to a single weapon that also takes up your entire field. The first important card you need is Cavalry Academy. Namely 2 of them. Since Goldritter is also a Dragon Knight, you're allowed to give it Calvary Academy's boosts. With 2 of them, Goldritter hits 12K on both power and defense, allowing you to hit par with anything alive, even Tempest Enforcer. 13K will ensure that not even Tempest Enforcer will be able to hurt you. The second really important card to run is Actor Knights Hanged Man. Until we get Size 0's in Dragon World, you're going to have to make do with what you have, and you seriously need to give yourself the ability to attack more than once per turn.

Charging my spirit bomb

Along with a new base form that's super important, the Jackknife legion has gotten some really important additions. The most ridiculous one has to be "Burn Energy". Let me do the math here. First, let's calculate what it's like to evolve Burner from your hand. -1 from hand, +1 soul (wash). On-evolve, topgauge 2 (+1). Burner is a +1 from hand. Okay, what about through Jack's skill? -2 gauge, +1 soul (wash). On-evolve, topgauge 2 (+1). No matter how you get Burn Energy out, you're guaranteed a +1 in resources. This card is so broken, allowing Jackknives to be their own engine while providing huge Size 2 diversity. This is also the first Jackknife that doesn't minus when played from hand, which means you want to run as many of this card as you can. Needless to say, regardless of the Jack deck you're running, Burn Energy is a 4-of.

Don't think that this card is simply a Dragonic Charge clone. Dragonic Charge gives you 2 gauge and goes to the drop zone. Burn Energy gives you 2 gauge and goes on the field, giving you more field advantage. You're getting an entire card for free. Yes, Dragonic Charge still sucks.

Are you the prey?
No, we are the hunters!

Maybe you don't want to run Goldritter. It's understandable; after all, running Goldritter means that a lot of the evolutions become unusable, like "Dispersal" and "Beistand". And "Jaeger". Seid ihr das Essen? Nein, wir sind die Jäger! References aside, Eren is a typical -0.5-to-evolve-from-hand-but-wash-when-Jack-searches-him evolution. His stats are average, but his effect is pretty interesting. On-attack, discard a card and deal 2 damage. -1 from hand, +1.5 in direct damage (you almost forgot that it's weighted, didn't you). So it's a pretty good trade overall, but you're losing quite a lot of hand. Well, that's not too bad if you utilize your tools, namely Dragonic Grimoire, well. In any case, Eren helps transition Jackknives from a defensive, conservative build to a slightly more aggressive one to fit with the current meta. Plus it gives Jacks a great finisher.

Merry Christmas from
Santa Jack

But really, even in decks that don't plan on getting Goldritter out, you should still run Goldritter just to utilize Jackknife Gift. Jackknife Gift costs 1 gauge but allows you to give a Jack +1 soul from the drop, and then search for a Goldritter. -1.5 but +1 on field and +1 to hand. That's a win any day. In Goldritter decks, this is the thing that allows you to get your Goldritter out so consistently so early on (this and Burn Energy). In non-Goldritter decks...why not run it for kicks? You'll still +0.5 and you can charge away the Goldritter the next turn. It's a nice option to have, and Goldritter might just win you the game. When you already have Goldritter out, this card becomes even better. Instead of the first effect, the second effect kicks in, giving you +3 life and a draw. -1.5 but +1.5 and then +1? So the effect actually improves with Goldritter out. Sweet. Though you need to balance between this card and Dragonic Grimoire, as casting one will (temporarily) make the other one dead and vice versa.

Stop! Hammer time

Destroy Hammer Dragon makes every Dragonic Destroy you cast gain +2.25 in advantage (3 direct damage), turning it from a -1 to a +1.25. That's really cool, but it's a two-card combo. Destroy Hammer Dragon itself is a bit low in power (-0.5) so the end result is a bit less exciting. But I like these combos and this reviving of older cards. Reminds me of the Amatereasu, Riviere, and Great Daiyusha Legions and makes me wish that Dudley Emperor gets one eventually. But enough about an inferior card game.

Spike Shoulder "Blazing" is another one of those 1 gauge for Size 1's that I pretty much despise. Even worse, he needs another Spike Shoulder card in the drop zone to even be called, although that includes himself. But here's the catch. I hate paying 1 gauge for Penetrate on a Size 1. I hate paying 1 gauge for 3-crit on a Size 1. But when you give me both? Oh ho ho...don't mind if I do. Blazing is pretty ridiculous, getting +0.5 from the crit boost and a whopping +1.5 from the Penetrate for a measly 1 gauge cost in comparison. The restriction hurts but the 3-crit Penetrate sure hurts more. This guy makes both Deathgaze and Gallows look pretty weak, and basically underlines the basic minimum advantages a Size 1 should get before I'm willing to consistently expend any gauge for it.

Welcome to Honnouji

Continuing the support for old cards, the ever eccentric Dragon Seal gets, well, the associated dragon. As a reminder, Dragon Seal's clarified ruling allows the player to look at the face down cards in the soul (apparently we could have done this from the start). Only the player who set the cards face down can look at them, which seems fair. So when you cast Dragon Seal (-1 from hand), check the cards and realize "crap, there's no monster here and I totally just -1 for nothing", you can reveal Forbidden Edge Dragon from your hand, pay 1 gauge (-0.5) and move it to Dragon Seal's soul (-1). Now Dragon Seal is live, so +1. Did that make sense to anybody? Because it sure didn't make any sense to me. I mean, Dragon Seal at that point was a lost cause. You set it, it missed, and there's no turning back. So I really don't see the point in paying an extra gauge and minusing from hand more just to patch up the failed set earlier on. You might as well bite the dust and deal with it. Sure, I guess you can guarantee that fourth attack when you have less than 3 life. But for such a situational play, when you're already behind, minusing more from hand isn't going to help you.

Back, you Cold Blade!

Dragonic Counter is a nice option to have. Though it may not look applicable now, the math behind it is sound. -1 from hand, -2 gauge. Save one monster (+1) and destroy one of your opponent's (+1). Even better, if the monster you destroyed hadn't attacked yet, you just negated an attack (+1) for a maximum net gain of +1. This card vastly improves when Dragon World gets more bounce and on-call support, but for now, this helps Blue Sky Knights a lot by giving them more counter and bounce options to keep their life sky-high.

I need to see more Viking Sword Dragon. Makes Day of the Dragon the most broken field clearing spell in the world. Also? Viking himself takes no hits to crit, so all that damage is going in. Aww yeah. Viking Sword + Million Rapier + Dragobreach makes my inner dragon roar. This is the real Ragnarok boys.

Go back to Magic World

Enchant Wand Dragon. There's so many things wrong with this card. First. Size 1. That's a huge no-no. Size 1's are so easy to kill with counter removal spells it's not even funny. Second. 1000 power. That's right up Ancient World's alley in terms of removal spells, plus every power-based removal hits it. Third. 6000 defense. Oh come on, couldn't it have been 7000? Now even Pillar of Fire kills it, plus 6000 is the common number for Size 2 attacks, not to mention lots of Size 1's hit that level as well. And lastly. 2 gauge. Yes, Bushitroll, I understand that it's a wash when you give Penetrate to a 2-crit weapon and a plus when you give it to a 3-crit or higher weapon, but please, it's not even going to work if they're just going to counter destroy the freaking dragon. This thing legitimately needed to be at least 5000/1/8000 as a Size 2.

I'll leave you with this hilarious image. Tous pour un, un pour tous.

Generally speaking, I'm
pretty bold

Super Armordragons...yup, we get another one. General Boldness doesn't break the trend of these Size 3's being generally bad. His call cost is pretty horrific, 3 gauge and not even top-soulcharge. You have to soulcharge from hand and it has to be specifically Size 3 monsters. As if that wasn't enough, he even has a Lifelink 2 tacked on for good measure. With this much investment, I'd expect something like Double Attack 3-crit or maybe Penetrate but nooo. We get 4-crit and Move. Useless. Thank God he has at least 7K defense otherwise I'd just stop writing about him right now.

Bushiroad apparently thinks his ability makes up for all this mess. He can pay 1 gauge to destroy any item or spell that your opponent has. Interesting. Even more so because this ability is not limited to once per turn, meaning you can just spam it until your opponent's field is devoid of non-monster stuff (save their flag). Not entirely useless, but far from relevant except against heavy set spell based decks. It will make a Katana player very sad, but that's about it.

DRILL GETTER

Drum bandwagons with his friends Jackknife Dragon and Demongodol to get his own evolution. I'm not sure what to say about it. First of all, you need a base Drum to call it on. Since it's not a Thunder Knight (but rather, the very first Super Armordragon Size 2) you're probably going to call it over the original Drum - and that's good, giving Drum Breaker an extra soul. Let's consider this card from the position that you played it over the original Drum. -1 gauge and -1 card from hand, gains +1 card on field and a bonus of 2000 permanent power. Hey, a wash, not bad. Which means that Move, Penetrate, and secondary Move effect are all for free. That's to be expected, really, since this is a pretty specific 2-card combo.

Toxic Dragon Alert

Move is always great to have in weapon decks, and Penetrate with 3-crit on a Size 2 is very powerful. But what's the deal with the secondary Move effect? Well, there's very few uses actually. You can Dragobond-Move during the main phase, and you can move out of the center position during your main phase to cast certain spells if you need to. I'm actually pretty certain this is Bushiroad's usual CYA policy, in that there will be future support for this kind of unique Move. Realistically, it's just Move. Which is still good.

Update: A kind reader pointed out that this specific Move keyword allows Dragon World players to call bouncing Size 0 monsters to the center slot, something I totally just overlooked. That's definitely one of the new implementations and support for this ability.

Armordragons get El Quixote. Or you could use Spring Heeled Jack clone, which is worse but arguably equivalent and definitely cheaper.

Put on your war paint

With Tomahawk Dragon comes a new interesting mechanic that Armordragons can mix into their weapons game. Normally, the triple formation only allows for 3 attacks, but by bouncing a monster back to the hand, you can squeeze out an extra attack. Since Tomahawk Dragon automatically returns to the hand after battle, it's guaranteed to be both repeatable and consistent. Although I don't like the idea of paying 1 gauge every time it's called.

However, the extra attack is nothing to sneeze at (+1 at least). And even better, Tomahawk can be combo'd with Green Dragon Song to grant +1 life every time it's called. It's like trading 1 gauge for 1 life and then getting an extra attack for free. This is not only very potent, but objectively better than what Purgatory Knights can do with their 4-attack formation. If only Armordragons had a good hand generation engine...in the end, you're likely going to splash Tomahawk into a Thunder Knights base to take advantage of the best of both worlds.

Zweihander = broadsword

Zweihander Dragon makes Wrath of Dragon useful. Besides the initial surprise that "Whoa! Wrath of Dragon can actually be used productively now", Zweihander isn't that good. It's technically better than Drum Bunker Dragon if you get 1 Counterattack off, but a good player can easily subvert that by attacking with a greater than 5000 defense monster. There aren't too many of those hanging around in the meta nowadays but they certainly do exist.

If you didn't like using Tomahawk Dragon (or if you don't have the money), you can always use Missile Bunker Dragon. Advantage-wise, they're actually exactly the same. Tomahawk has 2-crit while Missile Bunker has 1-crit and Penetrate. Tomahawk Dragon costs 1 gauge to call but returns to hand (-0.5) while Missile Bunker Dragon goes into your deck (-1) but you gain 1 gauge (+0.5). Which one you want to use is wholly dependant on your deck's strategy. If you want to reuse the Tomahawk 4-attack combo, then do that. But if you're hurting on gauge and you don't really need to do 4 attacks all the time, then Missile Bunker might be more advantageous.

Missile Bunker also has the capability of being the first attack and destroying your opponent's center monster. With Tomahawk Dragon, you're likely going to run a beater on the side to clear the center, but Missile Bunker can do that for you if you want.

It's kinda fun to see new Blue Sky Knights support. Bonblade Dragon has a hefty call cost for a Size 1, but you net +0.5 overall from a nuke and +1 life. You can only nuke Size 1's though, but that should be fine. Gauge is not that easy to get, however, especially since Dragonic Counter is a good card. Until Dragon World can get some strong gauge ramping, this card will have to wait patiently for its chance to shine.

Drop it!

Perfect Pack gives us some pretty nice cards to add to our lineup. Drop Arms Dragon with 6000/2 offensive is already pretty solid, but then you get Double Attack once you get 5 or more Armordragons in the drop. They don't have to be unique, so you basically hit this point two to three turns into the game. Which means that as soon as you get into the middle of the game, you have access to spammable Size 2 Double Attackers, the thought of which just makes me want to rip a Dragon World flag into pieces. With Million Rapier, you actually have 8 possible Size 2 Double Attackers which makes Demios Sword Dragon look like an overcosted piece of crap.

Disturb Hand Dragon is really interesting. It's a 2-crit Size 1 so there's no problems there. What really makes the card unique is its ability to completely shut down Magic World decks by denying Nice One!, Kosher, and Second Volume plussing. You don't want this in your main deck, but once you're allowed to side, you can bring this douchebag to bear and make your Magic World opponents cry. A Magic World deck without plussing is completely worse in every aspect to every other deck.

Two drills are better than
one!

And from the special double decks, Drum Bunker Dragon "Dual Wield". Too restrictive. You need to be running Drums, which is not a huge issue since surprise, cards with Drum in their name are pretty broken in the first place. The problem is the fact that 4-crit Penetrate isn't all that big of a deal and 7K defense is relatively easy to deal with. It's not enough of a win-win card to really focus on, unless your deck is literally only Drum and you love evolutions. You could play a Drum archetype similar to Jackknives and spam evolutions...but without the right support, that kind of playstyle is lackluster at best.

Don't forget that he also changes every Drum into a Size 3, so that's a thing you have to deal with.

Boomerang Dragon is the freest +1 I've ever seen in a weapons-based deck. Even if you can't actually kills something (+1), you can deal 1 damage (+0.5) or even help link to clear counter thresholds and stuff. You can even swing Boomerang empty just to get it back into your hand. Paired with Green Dragon Song, that's a free life every turn. You might not need 4 of it, but running less than 3 might hurt your consistency at drawing it.

SHINGANCRIMSONZ

A new set, a new season, a new legion! Enter the Crimsons, a brigade of fist-fighting Red Armordragons that honestly seem to be nothing special besides the fact that Armordragons get even more stuff to shove into their toolbox. Second Crimson Chieftain, Burning Fore seems to be the big boss so far, a decently-costed Double Attack on 8000/2 with the additional ability to give Fist items on your field +1 crit. Sounds great, except...that cute ability docked Burning Fore's defense to the horrible PoFable 6000, so don't expect this guy to be around for a while. He's still pretty decent with the right support, since Dragon World has access to stuff like Dragobond and whatnot.

Speaking of toolbox, and quick detour, but Fifth Omni Dragon Lord, Tenbu marks the first of possibly five or more cards with the special keyword Omni Lord that grants them appearances in any deck, albeit only a single copy in non Dragon World decks. That's fine, a single copy of Tenbu goes a long way for decks that don't have board clear. Tenbu is a pretty cheap spell, 2 gauge for complete and utter destruction of your opponent's field. That's better than Power Ray MAXIMUM! and it has a 3-crit body. Kind of like a splashable Actor Knights Judgement. You can run 4 in Dragon World, but I probably wouldn't run more than 2.

Someone need a broken
card?

But anyways. Back to Crimsons. We have our typical diversity between Size 1 and Size 2 monsters. Size 1s, like Guns Knuckle Dragon, give supportive effects (Penetrate on Fist) whereas Size 2s, like Crimson Battler, Drum Bunker oh hello there, another unbalanced Drum card (Penetrate with Fist). Other Size 1's of note, the free 3-crit Break Shoulder Dragon and the 6000/1/5000 Radical Leg Dragon (when you have an equip, of course). Besides Drum, the only other in-set slightly worth considering card is Shield-Arm Dragon - but he's pretty bad, so look to the PRs for more support (I'll get to them later).

Mmmm, Dragoblaze has so much delicious crit. Are you telling me that Burning Fore turns this baby into a 3000/4 weapon for 1 gauge? Whew. The other Fist costs similar (-1 life) but gains more power for a respectable 5000/2. Which works better with Guns Knuckle for good Penetrate swings. And of course, you always have Dragoknuckle and Sunshine Impact. I'd probably find a balance between Dragoblaze and Impact for the best mix of damage and clear.

Eat Fist!

Gao abandons Gargantua Punisher for his own new Impact, Gigantic Crusher!!...it's the same thing. For 1 less gauge, you have to fulfill the condition of having a Fist weapon equipped - and seeing that both cost 1 gauge to equip, it's virtually the same thing. Obviously, Gigantic Crusher is less splashable than Gargantua but it's much more streamlined for Crimsons.

And so you can see that Crimsons is just basically a more efficient version of the Armordragon beatdown game, although it's missing some pretty key components (can I has a Mover please?). While you can make Crimsons on its own just fine, your best bet is to splash the good stuff (Drum, Break Shoulder) into a more toolboxy build that also runs Fists, but doesn't shy away from the good stuff we're used to (Inferno, Halberd, Green Song).

It's a Blaster card! I can
use this with MLB!

Catching up with Japan's releases, we get a few cards from their Double Buddy Deck that we haven't gotten yet. Vajra Blaster Dragon is a great card to have received, especially with all this new Red Dragon support we just grabbed. 3 gauge for Double Attack and top-soulcharge is great, but look at that 7000 relevant defense: that's the key to Vajra's success. You can sit on this guy for days, it's great. He even nullifies Penetrate for you, what a bro. Sieger-style Dragon World decks work pretty decently, especially with Dragokeeper to stop random damage burn and good usable Size 0s now.

Drumsword is a good sword if you have Drum, and an ever better sword if you have Boomerang. Since it's pretty plausible you'll use both in any given Armorknights deck, Drumsword becomes your mainstay weapon because equipping a weapon using life instead of gauge is always a good thing. Always. And if that weapon gets to be 5000/3 on-command, well, that's even better.

It's called a Drumsword
and there's no drum.

Alright, PR time. If you're going to be running Crimsons, you definitely need a playset of the free 3-crit vanilla PR. Also a bunch of PR Crimson Drums that grab Fists in your drop zone and equips them for cheap.

This chibi Drum PR card is pretty good. It's like an Ultimate Buddy for Drum, except you're getting a card for free from your drop zone instead of +5000 power. Drum-based decks are definitely viable considering just how many different forms of Drum there are now.

I am the FUTURE

Speaking of Drum, I've saved the most ridiculous card for last. Ultimate Neo Drum, blasting his way from the future, is...well, I really don't know what to say about this card. It's a win-condition that's cheaper than Gargantua Punisher...but it dies to any form of removal out there. If you can't protect it, your opponent can just pop a removal spell at the beginning of Attack Phase and wahaha, Neo Drum becomes more like Dead Drum. It'd be cool if the card had some way to get a soul...you can run Ultimate Buddy I guess. But this poor beast doesn't even have Penetrate alongside that godly attack. What are you going to do about something in their center? This card can be a good 1-of cheese card, but I personally think that there's better card real estate out there. Definitely.

Holy damn this card sucks. Not even soul from topdeck, not even 7000 defense, not even 3-crit. Can't even field clear. Can't even Penetrate. Somebody shoot this thing to put it out if its misery.

My descendants shall
honor me for generations!

Jack is back! It's actually really cool how Bushiroad is still supporting these old archetypes (I spy some Thunder Knights too) because honestly, stuff like Jack is still very relevant. "Aznestor" is pretty great, being the first Jackknife dragon with Double Attack. 6000 defense isn't a big issue when you have soul and Jacks belong on the side anyways. A great addition to any Jackknife deck, really helps up that midgame pressure before going Goldritter.

Drum Bunker Dragon also gets a new form in "Spinning Lance". It's a very aggressive and expensive option, but as far as bang-for-buck goes it's pretty good. Unfortunately, you know the policy regarding Size 2's with low defense, high costs, and no Soulguard - they get popped. Really easily. There's also the rare chance that there's simply no target for Spinning Lance - and with the meta slowly creeping towards Size 3 tanks, it's definitely something to worry about.

Left, right, center!

Whoaaaaa Fatal Arms Dragon is seriously cool. So like the base stats are sad, but you get bonuses from being in certain field positions. On the left, 6000/4/3000 makes for a huge shot to the face. On the right, he Penetrates with 6000/3 which is pretty good. But the best part is when he is placed in the center, where he's a 6000/3/7000 tank that's pretty useful in Dragon World. But the best part? He gets Move! That means you can place him wherever you need him to best fit that turn's strategy and situation.

Double Katar Dragon is a Crimson Battler that's a pretty good tech against stuff like Ancient World Size 3's and Death Tallica, so you can consider him for the side deck. A Crimson more suited to the main deck would be Power Stamp Dragon, which destroys a monster on the left or right for only 1 gauge. Both of the Crimson Battlers require a Fist equipped, but...that's not anything new.

Trap Master Dragon...let's see, possible Set cards that you might include Green Dragon Song and Return System. He's also mandatory in a deck that runs 4000 Festival to guarantee that card.

My chains are more
expensive

Thunder Knights are getting some love again, starting with an Ironchain Dragon clone. I really like Ironchain's utility and synergies with a bunch of different cards (notably Penetrate effects) and is a pretty good meta call against tanky/stall/big center decks. Briefly going over the other support, we have Thunder Knights, Spike Shoulder Dragon, a 6000/2 Size 1 that can't be called to center (who cares, Kommandeur giffs Move) and Slide Wing Dragon who, what do you know, giffs Move. As a Size 1, he's pretty useful in getting some of your monsters to dance around the battlefield. We also have a better Awl Pike clone in Sword Bunker Dragon, 4000/2 with Penetrate for just 1 gauge is not a bad price to pay.

We're going to devote a lot of time here to a new Dragon World set card, 4000 Festival! See, Bushiroad's been printing an awful lot of monsters with 4000 attack which is really abysmal in this game, not a relevant number at all. So they decided to make it relevant by granting them a huge buff with this Set spell. All Size 1 Armordragons with 4000 printed power gets Penetrate. Wow. And on top of that, you can pay 1 gauge every turn to call a Size 1 Armordragon from your drop zone. Which is essentially like drawing a card for 1 gauge, and in Dragon World this is undeniably overpowered. How much can we abuse 4000 Festival before the festivities end?

This is our time!

We'll start with vanillas, because anything with 4000/2 automatically becomes playable. Yup, you're probably going to be running Bear Trap Dragon, of all things (Green Horn Dragon and Kris Knife Dragon also works). Fracture Head Dragon has 3 crit for only 1 gauge, so that's a good option for even more damage. Blue Sky Knights, Slenje Dragon heals on-play - what a winner, you can call him every turn with Festival (and alongside Green Dragon Song) for massive healing. Twin Brudess Dragon not only gets Penetrate but also gives you gauge for destroying monsters, perfect for this kind of deck. And if you want a tank in the center, Diamond-shield Dragon's got you covered with 7000 defense on a Size 1 (though still vulnerable to Size 1 nuke spells). If you need more power, Crimson Battler, Radical Leg Dragon has 4000 printed power but buffs that up to 6000 with an item equipped. And of course, Trap Master Dragon can search out 4000 Festival, making it a staple.

Your best bet for a 4000 deck is to double down on Crimson Support, since Burn Guts Dragon and Rock Bunker Dragon have good synergy effects with Fist items. Of course, you could also play with a full field of Size 1 monsters since you don't have that many Move options - with the amount of advantage generation in this newfangled deck, it's definitely an option.

I'm not a part of this system

Speaking of Burn Guts and Rock Bunker, both are pretty powerful Size 1 options. Burn Guts is your Mover while Rock Bunker is an on-play topgauge. And don't forget Heavy-impact Dragon - though a Size 2, he can make up for the link attack minus by destroying anything on your opponent's field - anything.

Systemic Dagger, "Black Edge" is a really cool card. You can call him with a full field of Size 1 monsters, he can kill a Systemic in your center to gain Double Attack and more damage and also free the center slot for a weapon attack. Synergies...then you can call "Onca" later for a good Size 2 body. Brings a powerful rush strategy to the table for toolbox Armordragons.

Let's get fired up

Fifth Omni is the newest archetype given to Armordragons. Not to be confused with the new Fifth Omni Lord Drum (who is a Secret Rare, by the way), Fifth Omni is a legion of knights that serve the Fifth Omni Dragon Lord. They focus on converting damage taken into more or less free advantage. Obviously meant to be anti-Thunder Mine, the Fifth Omni archetype ended up actually becoming anti-winning. Because in order to win, you need to deal damage, and if you gave your opponent advantages while doing damage then...well, what can you do? Targeting the field first is a viable strategy but Dragon World has no shortage of protection spells for their monsters. Either way it's win-win for the Fifth Omni player and lose-lose for the other.

Whoa whoa, just chill

Of course, not all the Fifth Omni monsters are worth running. Like the Triple Rare, Mizaru? This card is absolutely terrible. Not only does it require a gauge to call, but you only get to draw (after paying another gauge) if you, the player, are the target of an attack. You don't even draw for taking random damage. Terrible.

Instead, your Size 2 lineup should consist of Drum and either Merak (Penetrate, damage reduction) or Seikirei (call a Size 1 Fifth Omni) while you can fill your Size 1's with Doble (+gauge), Meglax (Size 1 destruction), Disintigrate Arare (Item destruction), and Sand Staff Arkaid (gauge + life). Don't forget the Secret Size 1 Leaping Zakuro, which searches your deck for Fifth Omni Drum and even pings you for it, how nice of them.

Fifth Omni Drum himself is pretty ridiculous, he destroys a monster every time you take damage if you end up with 6 life or less. He also has Soulguard and free top-soul so he's pretty sticky. You can definitely keep him around long enough for him to be a main issue, especially with a bunch of options to force-take damage as well. Like Lord's Dragon Shield and Dragon Change, both of which have cast costs that ping yourself. Lord's Dragon Shield can't be negated and Dragon Change protects a Fifth Omni Dragon on the field. Needless to say, staples in the deck. Dragon Guard is even funnier, if an attack is aimed at your monsters you can change the target of the attack to yourself and draw a card.

A Blaise?

The Item support seems to be in conflict with each other...particularly the Dragon Fist, Ablaze. It reduces the damage you take from anything that's not an attack by 1, just like Dragokeeper. Which is strange because Fifth Omni was all about promoting these spells that forced you to take damage and now Ablaze just negates all that. Except not really. If you take a close look at all the Fifth Omni damage effects, you realize that with the exception of just a very few they're all washes. -1 life for +1 gauge, -1 life and -1 gauge for +1 field, etc. In other words, you don't gain more from pinging yourself but only when other people hurt you. If you keep hurting yourself on purpose you're not going to get anything. So Ablaze is perfect for turning your self-damage spells into strictly better versions of older spells. If you want to force-take damage, you always have Dragon Guard.

Playing Fifth Omni requires some careful eyes on your life. You want to dance around 6 as much as possible without dipping too low or getting too high above it. You win games based on how many baddies Drum can blow apart for free. However, there are many decks out there that can rush you down fast and without proper planning you can get taken down from 6 really easily. Knowing when to not take damage is just as important as knowing when to take damage. Always give yourself the option to recover a bunch of life (Green Dragon Song is a must) so you can convert it into damage taken into more resources. Other than that, just let your Fifth Omni Dragon Lord carry you on its busted back.

It's like a chameleon

There's some resurging support for older archetypes. Crimsons were a recent thing, but Thunder Knights? It's amazing that they're even getting a new lease on life. The new level 0, Hardy Knife Dragon, gives you an alternative draw engine in a deck that already has Dragoarcher. It also works fantastically with the Size 3 Bastard Sword Dragon. Double Flail Dragon is soul-hate that activates on both turns, which is really neat. For Crimsons, they get get another on-hit gauge for Size 1's, that's about it. Catapult Knuckle is also interesting in tandem with some of your harder-hitting Fist Items, giving a 3-crit Fist Double Attack sounds pretty nasty. On that note, I guess they can take advantage of Ablaze as well.

Identity crisis

Jackknife, "Drum Bunker". It's a Jack and a Drum into one card. Now, let me talk about how actually amazing this card is from a game design perspective. It costs 1 gauge to play over either a Jackknife or Drum. If you play it over a Jackknife, you get Double Attack and Move. If you play it over a Drum, you get +1 crit and Penetrate. That's valued about equivalently, although Double Attack is better offensively than +1 crit and Penetrate. Here's the cool thing though. Jackknife's base forms don't come with free soul, so you're often looking at 7000/2/5000 with Double Attack and 1 soul. Drum's base forms, however, often come with free soul so you can be sitting pretty on 7000/3/5000 with Penetrate and 2 soul. So they actually thought about balancing the card based one what base it evolves from. That's really cool.

Of course, if you can stack two Jackknife "Drum Bunker"s on top of each other and become absolutely destructive. So it's not out of the question to build actual decks around this card, nor is it out of the question to tech this into either Jack or Drum decks.

Tomorrow, we win!

Speaking of Drum decks, Drum Bunker SD is a really good advantage buff. Regardless of which mode you choose, you're basically looking at the equivalent of +0.5 as long as SD Drum is in your drop zone. 

Tengu SD is really good too, either getting rid of a Size 1 or a soul. He trades favorably as a +1 in almost every case and can be easily used as a one-for-one if you just call over him. Absolutely amazing tech against both Size 1 heavy decks and decks with Soulguard.

Crimson Battler, Halberd Gauntlet is a strong Size 2 option, basically acting as 7000/2/7000 with Move. The question is whether or not Halberd Gauntlet is a good enough Size 2 for Crimsons. With Crimson Drum and Power Stamp, you don't really have that much room but Halberd Gauntlet is definitely worth it to squeeze 2 in.

Crimson Lord

On the topic of Crimsons, Crimson Drum also gets a Fifth Omni form. It's not good by itself, but you have to be clever with how you use it. His effect effectively gives him the Raging Spirit Guard mechanic for 1 life every time, but his base stats are kinda whatever. But if you use the new Item that buffs Armordragons by +1000/1000 you can make Crimson Drum a somewhat makeshift tank. And since his effect isn't actually a counter ability, you can combine it with stuff like Dragoenergy to make the most of it.

Now let's get to the Fifth Omni support. Light Rim Alliot sucks. Disregard.

Furious Iron Kongo. Now we're talking. If you can get 5 or more different cards with FIfth Dragon in your drop, this guy is a 9000/3/7000 with Double Attack and Penetrate for only 2 gauge. You can definitely fit this in and get a lot of free value lategame. You're better off using this guy than Thousand Dachis Yoko, even though the latter gets free soul. That's because Dachis Yoko has really pitiful stats, costs more, and unlike Adil Diablos it was based on doesn't ever get bigger. Its ability is pretty much worthless as well.

Thunder Blade Kokuyo is cool if you have the damage reduction Item equipped because you get gauge for cheap. Holy Scripture Hisui would be great if it wasn't completely dead against Hero World, specifically Brave Machines, specifically Kaizerion.

The King

Broken Drum Bunker dragons intensifies. Fifth Omni Super Dragon Lord, Kaizer Drum (what a mouthful) is possibly the most ridiculous thing that Bushiroad's printed in a while. Like, remember Dragonic Destroy? 2 gauge to destroy 1 monster? Well, Kaizer Drum is basically that. Except it's a monster. And a Drum. And has 10000/3/5000 stats. And has soul. And can prevent the player from dying...wait what. There's nothing more to talk about.

In other news, more Fifth Omni support. Dark Arms Suu is really important for doing nasty things to your opponent and locking them out of resources. Toxin Tenki is also a unique option, resting Size 2 or less monsters are great when you can neuter Double Attackers.

Crazed Tenbu is the counterpart of Lord Tenbu, and he demonstrates his difference in how he utterly destroys a single card, even able to nuke the soul of stalwart targets. His worth is about as much as old Tenbu - if you weren't running Tenbu, then you're probably not going to want Crazed Tenbu either.

But Flame Summoner Rando is an important card to help recurse your Fifth Omni strategies, including your spells, items, and Impacts.

- updated to H-BT04, CP01, H-EB04, H-TD02, H-PP01 -

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