Dragon Knight

Dragon Knights are a pretty interesting archetype to play. They get the benefit of getting the support of generic Dragon World cards while having a totally different playstyle and feel as compared to the overused and overplayed Armordragons. Thus, they straddle a fine line between competitive and rogue, often being able to counter the meta and be the meta simultaneously. Which is weird, and a paradox.

Stats-wise, they share the same base value as Armordragons but often have reversed values (4000/1/5000 instead of 5000/1/4000). They are more gauge heavy than the average Armordragon deck but ultimately cost less gauge than Jackknives. They specialize in having a variety of on-call effects coupled with various pressure columns that also create good removal effects when used in conjunction with one another. Their big bosses have abilities that allow fallen comrades from the drop zone give support in the form of buffs to remaining monsters. Ultimately, Dragon Knights play a very controlled and delicate game that wins games by technique and not raw power.

The coolest thing about Dragon Knights, though, is that cards are named after famous historical warriors and generals from all around the world.

Pity is treason

The first card we have to showcase is Dragon Knight, Maximilian. He's a really good card that many people fail to understand how to use. Though his stats are crap, he makes a good paper shield and more importantly gives you much needed gauge alongside compression. By playing him, he gives you another turn of charge-and-draw, but specifically with a Dragon Knight card. The overall transaction is +0.5, but it's much more quality than that because of compression.

Compression, in brief, removes cards from your deck that you don't need in order to increase the chances of drawing something that you do need. By playing Maximilian, you gauge a useless Dragon Knight card and compress your deck by 1 more than it would've been. As of now, without extensive tutoring or refresh, deck compression is highly valued in Buddyfight. Maximilian gives you a basic compression and gauge engine, which is great for any Dragon Knights deck.

Twin Attack Tactics is such a bad card...Bushiroad, link attacking sucks. You honestly need to give much more bonuses for link attacking than just whoop-de-doop 1 direct damage. -1.5 to set, then another -1 from a link attack to gain +0.75? No thank you! There's no way this card could ever turn positive. You -1 every time you link attack, so the rewards that you gain from link attacking better be more than a +1 in return. Keep this in mind as Dungeon World cards come out, and evaluate the link attacker promoter cards accordingly.

While living I want
to live well

When it comes to the king of all Dragon Knights, no other monster can stand against the fury of Dragon Knight, Geronimo. This card gets Soulguard and Double Attack off of a 7000 defense threshold, which alone should make him a beast; Buster Cannon Dragon can't begin to compare, despite being at the same call cost. However, Geronimo's true potential is limitless, determined by how many Dragon Knights have fallen before him. He gets +1000 power for every Dragon Knight in the drop, which means that in late game, holy crap. Even early game, as long as you gauge and drop cards smartly, you can easily get him up to 7000 power to start hitting those magic thresholds. Keep in mind that spells like Knightenergy also count towards Geronimo's skill; you can use Knightenergy and once the spell hits the drop zone Geronimo gains another +1000. This will make Knightenergy a pseudo- +4000/3000 for Geronimo, with +1000 power being permanent - though I doubt you'd ever really find much use for that.

Good faith is the
foundation of right

Dragon Knight, Kamitsumiyaou (henceforth shortened to Kami) is an alternate Size 3 in case you want to try something new (or can't afford Geronimo). His call cost is hilarious because you -2 from field and +1 in the gauge in the weirdest way possible. So basically his call cost is a -1 total (not bad for a Size 3) but it's also a resource converter. You lose hand/field and gain in gauge. A cool way to utilize his call cost is to use cards that rest themselves for an effect as payment - that way you can get two birds with one stone. Or just drop some Maximilians for a one-turn massive gauge-burst.

Basically, this guy can unleash some amazing gauge-heavy combos in Dragon Knights that Geronimo simply doesn't support. His stats are pretty crappy, but that's fine since you want him to die. When he dies, you get to draw 2...replenishing your hand, making Kami a +1 overall. His less-than-5 life restriction is pretty harsh, however, and drawing more doesn't really help you at that point. You should only use this dude if you need a lot of gauge for a heavy finish, like with Gargantua.

When I get better, I want
to fly again

There are three main strategies involved with Dragon Knights: calling, resting, and drop-support. Iwamoto is an example of resting. When you have another Dragon Knight (read: Size 1) on the field, you can rest Iwamoto to unconditionally destroy an opponent's monster. Just like that. Bam. He's dead. Obviously, Iwamoto is just a Size 3 killer. Magic numbers don't mean anything to him, and his removal can't be blocked by any shields. On top of that, when he's not resting to destroy, he's hitting your opponent for a good 3-crit. Damage and removal are two things Dragon Knights greatly appreciate, and Iwamoto delivers on both.

Thou hast seen nothing
yet!

On-hit effects like Dragon Knight, El Quixote's are often seen as bad because "there's no way my opponent will let it through!" That's. The. Point. You want to force your opponent to block it because, seriously, on-hit effects like +1 gauge are deceptive threats. Getting more gauge isn't going to kill your opponent faster, it's merely going to open up the possibilities and combos of your deck...that your opponent can't predict. If your opponent blocks an on-hit effect, it means that he's trying to guard against the unknown, and that's to your advantage. What if you didn't even need that gauge? Your opponent just wasted a shield on an empty threat. Also, it's not like your opponent can block every attack so you can assume that El Quixote will generate gauge well enough regularly to be consistent. In other words, even though Dragon Knights do use a lot of gauge, you shouldn't be turning to Dragonic Charge to get you that gauge. Just use El Quixote, and if you seriously need a lot lot then use Kami instead of Geronimo.

I've talked about Dragon Knight, Rudel in my article on abilities and direct damage, but I never really said if he was worth it or not. The answer is: both. He's terrible if you're relying on him as a main gambit, but as a side strategy to get Dragon Knights into the drop he's a pretty cool tech to deal direct damage at the same time. He's certainly going to take your opponent by surprise and catch them off guard.

Fast is fine, but
accuracy is everything

There are cards that make sense, and then there's just some really weird ones. Weird ones like Dragon Knight, Wyatt Earp. That name. That flavor text. That ability. You can rest Wyatt to destroy a monster on the field with 4000 or less...power? Yeah, power. So while Wyatt can attack and get rid of anything with 4000 or less defense, he has the option of resting and getting rid of anything with 4000 or less power. That certainly increases his coverage, but by how much? Actually, quite a lot. Notable cards include stuff like Bronze Shield Dragon, Herb Magician, Soichiro Tenjiku, Fortune Dragon, Forbolka, and Rock Dragon Emperor, Vragos. Additionally, he has 3 crit, so he performs the same function as Iwamoto except with a restriction in removal. However, he has no restriction on casting his ability (unlike Iwamoto, who pretty much dies in a non-Dragon Knight deck) so he's pretty splashable even in Armordragons.

Blood is the life...
and it shall be mine

With the advent of BP02, Dragon Knight's true colors become clear. While on-call and resting effects are great and all, nothing compares to Dragon Knight's ability to utilize the drop zone to their advantage. Take Dragon Knight, Vlad Dracula, for example. He starts of with zero critical but gains one per Dragon Knight monster in the drop zone (note that it's non-unique), up to 6. 6 is a freaking lot. It's the most any monster besides Tempest Enforcer can output in a single turn. And how hard is it to get 6 Dragon Knight monsters in the drop? Not very hard. His call cost is 3 gauge, however, and his stats indicate that he needs every single one of his 6-crit to be worth it as a ridiculously good opportunity wash. Now, if only there was a way to give him Penetrate...oh, there is! Ja-jaaan! Dragonic Dash to the rescue! The spell in itself is a wash if you give it to any 2-crit monster who can clear the center, so it's not a bad card in and of itself. But with Vlad Dracula...oh ho ho. There will be some blood shed tonight.

I am born of a rank which
recognises no superior
but God

Continuing with the drop-support, we get Dragon Knight, Richard. I have no idea what Richard this card is referring to. And I feel like it's a bit prejudice to assume that Richard doesn't like peace. Are you friends with Richard? Are you on a first-name basis? Is that why there's no surname here? Are you trying to get Shizuo mad?

Making Japanese jokes with an English audience is pretty hard.

Moving on, Richard is extremely good, because apparently he's a king. And as a king, he gets power based on how many of his friends are dead (Et tu, Brute?). If there are four unique Dragon Knight cards in the discard (note: not monsters), Richard gets +4000/4000 (+4 in terms of stats) bringing him to 8000/2/8000. On a no-cost Size 2 monster. Do you know how annoying it is to deal with this? If you choose to play with Calvary Academy, you can get this number even higher. It's almost unfair, because 4 unique Dragon Knights is almost a joke. If you think about how often Grandfather Clock goes off in a game, then imagine just how much easier it is to get Richard going. You barely even have to try.

The only true wisdom is
in knowing you know
nothing

I guess you could technically classify Socrates as a warrior or a general of philosophy...but that's pretty lame. Socrates should spend his time philosophizing about why his ability is so bad. If you are being attacked (read: why are you being attacked when there's a monster on the field), then you can drop a card and lose 1 life to negate the attack. Wait. I still take damage? So even if I want to nullify an attack, I still have to take damage? Is philosophy really that self-detrimental? (It is.) Since you have to discard a card while you're at it, you're going -1.5 to block an attack. That attack better be a -1.5 if it hits as well otherwise Socrates is going to cost you. I suppose you can use him to discard more Dragon Knights to the drop for combos but honestly getting Dragon Knights into the drop is much easier and shouldn't require such a bad ability to execute. Honestly, Socrates might work as a reverse psychology pressure column: your opponents might be induced to leave him alive just to tempt you to using that dumbass ability (and then you gain advantage because you have monsters still on the field!). Whoa. That's actually pretty deep. I guess I shouldn't underestimate philosophy or Socrates.

Set 3 introduces an entirely new archetype, the Shinsengumi. In case you were wondering, the Shinsengumi was a historic special operations squadron organized to protect the Tokugawa Shogunate from foreign threats during the Meiji Restoration (it's also a kind of ramen). Literally "the new squad", the Shinsegumi archetype features some brand new knights alongside a new Counter spell designed to make the most of these warriors.

Go forth, my men!

Let's start with Kondou. In history, he was famous for being the commander of the Shinsengumi. Like Kommandeur Fahne, he grants fellow legion/archetype members +1 crit - but not the Move. His stats are also half-assed, but he's a Size 1, which leads to more versatility. If you call three at the same time, they'll each have 5-crit, which is pretty scary. Unlike Kommandeur, who makes up for his meh stats and call cost with his ability, Kondou comes in with -2000/-1/-1000 vanilla power, which is an entire -1.5. He's also 1 gauge to call, which brings him to a rather sad -2. His ability grants himself +1 crit so he's a -1 if you don't call anything else. Well, time to give this guy some support and a real squadron to command.

My sword hasn't dulled
in...umm...100 years

Kondou's right-hand man is Dragon Knight, Soushi. It's kinda funny, because "Soushi" in Chinese means "clean up", and that's exactly what Soushi does (in Japanese, his name is actually Sōji and it doesn't have the same meaning). Soushi is a Shinsengumi exclusive version of Iwamoto. It's harder to pull him off since you require a Shinsengumi on the field, but he's a Size 1 which is a huge bonus. As a cute little play, you can actually rest him and then have him suicide. I mean, you can do that if you don't want to call over him. It's a fun little joke, though some anal judges may think you're trolling and tag you for unnecessary play.

I'll keep this team together

But honestly, the only reason Shinsengumi can even function is because Hijikata is there. When he's called, he has the ability to pay 1 gauge to recover one Wolf of Mibu from the drop zone. The recovery is optional, which gives Hijikata more options. But honestly you're going to want to recover the counter every turn. Since the recovery is on-call, you can Skies or Force Return to get this back to hand to recover more Wolf of Mibus.

Together we fight,
together we die

The star of the Shinsengumi is a spell. Wolf of Mibu is Knightenergy on crack. Statwise, it gains +2000/2000 (compared to Knightenergy) to both power and defense, which is a +0.667 advantage bonus. But the quality bonus that Wolf gives is huge because Counterattack, like Soulguard, is also a quality decision. The stronger your card is, the more likely you're going to be able to destroy a good monster via Counterattack. Wolf of Mibu makes absolute terrors out of even the weakest Size 1's in the Shinsengumi squad. The best Shinsengumi becomes 9000/2/9000 with the spell. And remember, this can be used on your turn as well to buff a knight to field clear (but Soushi is better). With plenty of Skies and 20-card Shinsengumi squad, the Shinsengumi archetype plays like a hit-and-run deck that comes in, deals damage like a storm, and leaves with no trace. Personally, I'd actually run this kind of deck with Burning Bow so you can deal extra damage over time even with a monster in the center.

EB02: Hey look, a bone.

Impossible is a word
found only in the
dictionary of fools

Dragon Knights make sort-of a comeback in Set 4. Unsurprisingly, they got outshadowed by practically every other thing in the set but the support they got was surprisingly helpful. Dragon Knight, Napoleon helps as a way to set the tone for how Dragon Knights have evolved. He's got delicious stats, 9000/3/7000 base. He can't be called to the center, which normally would be a "What?!" but in this case is absolutely amazing because of his on-call ability. After paying 3 gauge, you can call a Size 2 (Size 2 only) Dragon Knight from your drop zone, and that Size 2 is now treated as a Size 0. Whoa. That's pretty wild. There are some disadvantages to that, like allowing Dragonic Thunder to target previously untargetable cards, but the plays you could make with this are pretty neat.

Two targets immediately come to mind; since you still have to pay the call cost, you really don't want to be calling Vlad. The first target is Richard. In the right situation, Richard will be a Size 0 with 8000/2/8000. You can call him to your center as a huge wall or call him to the left and basically have 2 attackers on the field for the rest of the game that your opponent won't even bother removing.

There is nothing impossible
to him who will try

The second target is Alexander. No, not the old Alexander, the new one. Twin Horned King of Knights, Alexander does benefit from the old one, however. If you have 2 or more Alexanders in the drop zone, Twin-Xander gets Double Attack. For a call cost of 1 gauge. On a 5000/2/6000 body. Can we all say "hell yes!"?  And with Napoleon, he's now a Size 0 on your side doing 2 attacks every turn. This is just great. Even without Napoleon, the Double Attack on the Size 2 is well worth it.

Do note that when Napoleon dies, the Size 0 becomes a Size 2, and also if the Size 0 dies Napoleon can't exactly call a new one and is left to be somewhat useless without Penetrate or Double Attack on the side.

This is like the best thing
ever

Whoaa~! I was thinking that Dragon Knights would get laid to the wayside as long as Noboru was gone from the anime, but I didn't expect such a glorious revival. Not only has Kitten Shirt returned in all his former "Kokoro-chan iu na!" wonder, but he's brought back some especially badass looking cards. The new weapon, Hyperion, is a freaking dragon. A dragon. Your weapon is a dragon. That's just too sick. It even has the effects to back it up. 2 gauge for 7000/2 is actually a complete wash, which means that its bonus effect is a true bonus. Hyperion can topgauge whenever you deal damage or destroy a monster, which means as long as Hyperion isn't nullified it's gaining you 1 gauge. It easily pays for itself, hits a ridiculously high power level, and will help with general gauge issues in the future.

Samurai Mulan

Dragon Knight, Spartax is very interesting. 3 gauge is pretty costly, and moving all Dragon Knights from field to soul is a wash transaction. So essentially Spartax better be worth it, but nothing about 3-crit Penetrate screams "I'm amazing". 8000 power isn't particularly amazing, and 5000 defense on a Size 3 is pretty bad. Dragon Knights don't have a Size 0 yet so if you're going to go big you should stick with a Double Attacker. Oh look, we have one already. Isn't that convenient?

Dragon Knight, Tomoe is your new staple draw engine. On-play, 1 gauge for 1 card. Very easily fulfilled conditions and good stats to back it up (5000/1/2000). It's a double rare but it's necessary. With Tomoe, Dragon Knights finally can do something better than traditional Armorknights.

I've an arrow for you too

I'm a little skeptical about any Size 2 Dragon Knight that gets introduced now. With Richard, Vlad Dracula, Iwamoto, Alexander, and even more options, there's very few new effects I would even really want. Though Motonari certainly looks pretty cool with his traditional Asian hat, his effect is pretty lackluster. His stats suck (-2000/2000) and he only gets to topgauge if he survives for a turn, and that's just +0.5 only. I suppose he washes after two turns of life but is he seriously going to live that long? And that much delayed gauge is kinda disappointing. You might as well gun for El Quixote hits.

Size 1 Dragon Knights, on the other hand, can always be improved. Mitsuhide is impressive because he can guarantee kills on anything with 3-crit or higher - even Armorknight Bahamut. He's also 2-crit which means if he isn't screwing over some powerful dude he's hitting face for good damage.

...oh, Mitsuhide auto-kills any monster that's stronger than himself. Wow. That's so fitting. Damn traitor. I wonder if we can get enough cards to historically replay the Sengoku Jidai.

My art is different than
yours. It consists not so
much in defeating others
but in not being defeated

Well, I said Size 2 Dragon Knights were pretty set already. But you still have to wonder if there's any way to improve what you have. So far, Richard and Vlad Dracula work in tandem and gain bonuses from drop zone DKnights, while Alexander combos with himself to get Double Attack. Iwamoto goes anywhere. Richard is usually live very quickly, but getting Vlad Dracula to 6-crit takes some work. Dragon Knight, Bokuden tries to ease that work up a bit. On-play, you can look at all your gauge, drop whichever ones you want, then topgauge until your gauge is back to the original amount. You don't gain any gauge from this but you certainly fuel your drop zone toolbox very, very fast. Using Bokuden with about 3-4 gauge could very likely get Vlad Dracula up to speed in one turn. It's a strong card to use if you are running drop-zone based DKnights. Also, even as a 1-of tech, its not bad to use just so you can remind yourself what's in your gauge.

We must defend our history - We must preserve
our legend

I usually don't mention Impacts because they're relatively irrelevant but The Glorious Legacy is something else. You need to have the drop zone for it so Bokuden is more or less a must, but it gains advantage like nothing else. For 2 gauge, you can draw 3 cards, netting a +1 in advantage. Typical of an Impact, but the fact that you can cast it whenver is wonderful. It's like a glorified Nice One! for Dragon Knights. Definitely worth running, though maybe not at max copies. The drop zone restriction doesn't allow this card to be used early game when it's most useful. And also, the cards that you draw can't really be put to good use until the next turn.

Dragon Knight, Juutilainen. Read as: Whenever you have that one really broken weapon that you're probably running 4-of equipped, this is a costless 3-crit vanilla. Jump on this if you haven't already because this is amazing.

You guys are so weak:
here, I'll fight you
with one hand

Oh man, is that Shinsengumi support I see? It's pretty expensive for a Size 1 but the card legitimately searches out another Shinsegumi as a wash. It's like Mary Sue but for Shinsengumi. Except where Mary Sue takes several hits to her stats, Sanosuke doesn't take a single blow to his beautiful 4000/2/2000 spread. This fixes some, though not all, of Shinsengumi's consistency issues. Have fun getting your 15-crit field faster.

We also have a Size 1 1-crit Penetrater and a pretty decent Size 0 2-crit monster, both of which are pretty helpful additions to Dragon Knights, though you have pretty good Size 1 options already.

Haha, the only thing calamity about Calamity Jane is the calamity that is her effect and the support that Dragon Knights have received in this last set. Okay, maybe Bat Masterson is playable but everything else is meeeeeeh. There are gimmicks you can pull off with Calamity and Force Return, but the draw engine in that deck needs some work.

He who stops being better
stops being good

Dragon Knights are finally getting some long-deserved support...but it doesn't look like anything that I would be too excited about. Dragon Knight, Lincoln would be great but there's so many issues with him. That 1 gauge call cost. 5000/2/5000 stats. So much gauge investment into drawing cards that might not even happen if you don't even hit. You're probably better off using Tomoe.

I guess Dragon Knight, Cromwell is a viable option. But it kinda sucks if your opponent removes the other Dragon Knight on your field, so you have to be a bit creative. What's a Dragon Knight that isn't a monster? Specifically, Calvary Academy is your best option (although Twin Attack Tactics also work, technically).

Lenus Mars, at your service

So all the other Dragon Knight cards that require a "Dragon Knight on the field" will activate with Calvary Academy, which means that you're probably going to use the Set card quite a bit now. For example, Dragon Knight, Lenus can Move with another Dragon Knight, and even gains a gauge when you do, making Calvary Academy basically free.

We expected Dragon Knight support come H-BT03, but I think the last thing I expected was full decked-out support for an entirely new Dragon Knight playstyle. We've seen drop-zone based DKnights, we've seen Shinsengumi and Geronimo tanking, but now we have the missing pieces to one of the scariest and most unique decks that Dragon World has to offer - Rest Knights. You kill your opponent by resting/tapping your monsters.

Even a horse can make
a man a god

It works like this: call a full field of whatever you want, maximizing the efficiency of on-play and resting effects. After you're done with that field, just use Force Return, Gambit, or The Skies in Your Hand to bounce your entire field back and repeat. Do this as many times as necessary before attacking with a full field + Hyperion or something like that.

Dragon Knight, Pisaro can tap himself to draw a card. Dragon Knight, Enrique can tap himself if there's another Dragon Knight on the field to top-gauge 2. You can play both, use both abilities, then call either Kamitsumiyaou or Ivan and another Size 0 for 3 powerful attacks.

You cannot teach a man
anything; you can only
help him find it within
himself

Bring back Iwamoto and Calamity Jane for some more action because Dragon Knight, Galileo gives them a whole new level of gameplay. Neither Iwamoto or Calamity Jane is limited to once-per turn so you can use Galileo to restand them and use their effects again. You also have Ryoma to bounce cards back to the hand to replay to tap again for nearly endless iterations.

As if we needed more things to help us, we also got two new Set spells: Dragon Land and Dragon Knight Formation. Dragon Land gives you life whenever you rest a Dragon Knight (during your main phase), and Dragon Knight Formation gives you gauge whenever you bounce a Dragon Knight. Naturally the latter is better since you can activate it both turns, but there's no real harm in using both. By the time you're done, your opponent should be looking at no gauge, no field and a wave of attacks incoming while you're sitting pretty with a ton of life and gauge for no apparent reason. And you don't lose out on hand either.

Cue the flashback!

El Quixote not-SD version is a great add-on to your Size 2 lineup, but now that our cardpool is looking quite large we have to consider his worth. He gets +1.5 advantage on-hit which is fantastic but he's battling the raw stats of Richard and the power-clear of Iwamoto for deckspace, plus the hordes of Size 1 DKnights that are better than their Size 2 counterparts. I still say new El Quixote is worth it as a 3-4 of if only for a fantastic T1 drop and endless pressure.

Faust is like super weird and I'm not even sure it's that good, since there's really no Size 3 Dragon Knight you want to sit on longer than situationally necessary.

Instead Dragon Knights big winner is the weapon, Stronghorn. Why? Because it's traited Dragon Knight! Which means you no longer have to rely on Calvary Academy to turn things on. And now the Iwamoto games can begin. Also 7000/2 Penetrate is pretty great.

And Dragonic Maneuver is objectively better than Dragonic Loop for Dragon Knights because you can cast it on your own turn to combo harder.

Dragon Knight, Nataku shows up with some interesting applications. Though Stronghorn is better than Hyperion, each has its own purpose and it's nice to be able to pick and choose with Nataku. Nataku also allows you to charge items early, pay them out and then equip it for value.

The coolest use of Knight Assault, I think, is giving the effect to Calvary Academy. And wasting it. Just joking. You can give it to Stronghorn for that guaranteed Penetrate though.

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

All images used obtained from the official Bushiroad website and used here solely for reference purposes. Future Card Buddyfight!, logos, and respective content belong to Bushiroad. Large images belong to the Buddyfight! Wikia.