The Tyranny of Orochi (Overview)

You guys are all losers.

No, I'm just kidding. There's no issue with playing the default World that Bushiroad loves to hell. In fact, it's probably really smart to be playing the World that gets all the support.

Dragon World is basically everything that you could possibly want in a World. They have solid stats on their monsters, they have a lot of them, they have a variety of spells, they have solid weapon selection and the support to use them with, they have stellar impacts. I swear you can't go wrong with this World. There's so many damn options to choose from it's ridiculous. And they have a spring of support that will never, ever run dry. Bask in the love of Bushiroad.

Dragon World is divided into to main archetypes, Armordragons and Dragon Knights. You can read about each in their corresponding article.

You know what, let me just list out all the ridiculous crap that Dragon World decks get that make them so damn broken. Green Dragon Shield. Blue Dragon Shield. Day of the Dragon. Dragonic Grimoire. Dragonic Thunder. Gargantua Punisher. Maybe some of them aren't always a run-at-4 in every deck, but they simply have abilities and effects that just leave other worlds in the dust. If I have to explain to you why any of the above are good, then there's some serious problem going on. There's more, but those are archetype specific that I'm going to go into more detail in their respective articles. These are the generic stuff splashable in all Dragon decks. And I'm going to convince you that there's even more to this list.

Fist of the Rising Sun

Steel First, Dragoknuckle equips by paying life. This is great, because you'd rather pay in life than in gauge almost always (for Dragon World, at least). It only hits at 2000 power, but that's ample for clearing some of the weaker Size 1 mobs and it gives a decent boost to link attackers (2000 + 5000 = 7000). What's amazing about this weapon is the 2 crit on-hit effect of topgauging. When Dragon World needs gauge, this thing can deliver. Since it's an on-hit effect from an attack, it will actually gain you advantage over time as opposed to Dragonic Charge which is a one-time wash.

The ability looks tempting to use, but try to refrain from pumping this weapon up too much. The base power is already crap, and if you calculate it, 1 gauge for 2000 bonus power is overcosted by 50%. That is, if you use the effect 2 times you should have gotten 6000 bonus power, not 4000. Dragoknuckle is supposed to be a gauge gainer, not a gauge sink. Do it only if you must clear a monster at all cost (or to get over a counter your opponent used).

Living on Cloud Nine

People underestimate The Skies in your Hand so much. Pay 1 gauge and 1 card to return all the monsters back to your hand. -1.5 for a wash? Nope! First of all, you're going to be using this when your opponent is attacking, thus countering their attack and stopping it (+1). Additionally, this card will protect any monster that you really want to keep alive and also gives you a chance to rearrange your field and use on-call effects again. Drum Bunker loses a soul. Second attack is fired, and you pop Skies. Drum goes back into your hand (-0.5 opportunity cost) and you play him the next turn for another top-soulcharge. You're positive again, and your opponent just wasted an attack.

There's also Force Return, which tries to imitate the above but doesn't stop an attack. You instead gain a life point, which is again a -0.5 opportunity cost but then on-call effects will now reactivate. Not as useful as Skies, but I'm sure there are decks that can put this to good use.

I honestly don't see enough people running Twin Dragonblades, Dragoanthem. Why this is so, I don't quite understand. When you have 5000 power on a Double Attacking weapon, it means that you can single-handedly clear anything your opponent wants to place in the center. If you can't clear it with the weapon itself, you can always link attack with a weaker monster to get over even the highest wall. This thing is ridiculous. It honestly doesn't matter if you can only attack the center, because this weapon essentially makes your opponent's center spot dead. Just dead. It's like Penetrate, except even more flexible, kills soul like a machine (especially with Dragoslasher), and makes you look like a bamf. I mean, it's Twin Blades. It's every RPG player's wet dream.

Flaming Fists

Generally speaking, Dragobond is pretty broken. It may not seem like it at first, since your opponent wouldn't normally target a side monster after clearing your center. And yes, this is the case if your opponent was clearing via attacks. But remember, it's more advantageous to use a spell to remove the center, so your opponent will feasibly attack a side when the center is cleared. And if that doesn't happen, you could always force your opponent to! Dragobond + Move is an amazing combination that nets +2 in advantage, just by virtue of the pairing. Dragobond also protects from removal spells, which is more lovely icing on that cake.

Dragoknuckle + silhouette

I've had people tell me Sun First, Sunshine Impact is a bad card. I actually thought so, too, and then I did the math. This card is INSANE. First of all, it's only 1 gauge to pay - cheap. Second, it hits for 6000 alone. That's the magic number for Size 2 offense. You basically equipped a permanent Size 2 monster to your center. It somehow didn't take a minus to the critical value, either. If we compare this to Dragofearless with permanent power being 1 gauge for 2000, then this card is already +0.25 upon equipping, and it hits at a magic number stage. And it has an effect. When you link attack with your Buddy (read: any Size 1), this weapon gets infinite power. As in, this item will destroy whatever it's going to hit. As in, link attacking the center with Pile Bunker Dragon or Dirge Drill Dragon or Jackknife "Dispersal" results in a guaranteed Penetrate. And if you link attack and your monster is destroyed by some counter, this weapon retains the power. Which means that you can actually kill Tempest Enforcer without minusing. Holy crap. Can I add that it doesn't even matter if they use 4 Dragoenergies? The ability to bypass Counterattack, counters in general, and still hit for good vanilla damage makes this card a worthy triple-rare.

For those of you who didn't like how Dragobond was restricted to the side columns only, we've got a new card for you. Dragon Barrier has the ability to prevent the removal of any Size 2 or higher monster, acting as a hand-Soulguard. You can also cast this preemptively if you want, and even on your own turn. This is especially useful for protecting those Size 3 bosses in the center. Do note that Dragon Barrier increases the effectiveness of higher defense; if they link attack the center and you cast this card, you've successfully wasted a link attack and put them behind in advantage. This makes cards like Death Sickle Dragon even more viable as opposed to Buster Cannon.

Are you smarter than
a dragon tamer?

That card isn't interesting. Dragoseele is interesting. As a 5000 power weapon with only -1 life as an equip cost, it's extremely strong and the 1 crit is more than justified. As a bonus, Dragoseele prevents nullification as long as it's not link attacking. Since the 1 crit isn't going to be causing any issues for your opponent, you can safely assume this weapon was made to make sure weaker monsters get cleared off the field. Pressure columns can't be shielded in any way, but they still can be saved with cards like Dragobond or the above Dragon Barrier. Because of that, this card is really quite niche and should mostly be used just to clear the field cheaply. It's better than Dragofearless, in my opinion.

People are hyping Dragogenius a lot...I don't quite understand why. You pay 2 gauge and cast the spell to draw 2 cards...that's a dead even wash. Dragonic Grimoire guarantees 3 cards without sacrificing gauge. As long as you cast Grimoire with 2 or fewer cards in hand, Grimoire is a wash. If you play Pokemon TCG, you should know that a Juniper clone is far superior to a costed Cheren clone.

Kamikaze

One of the new spells we get in EB02 is Dragonic Barrage. This card is pretty interesting, 2 gauge for a clean field wipe of all Size 1 (or less) monsters. Certainly not very flexible, but it really does hurt Katana decks a lot. However, with the metagame currently favoring weapons and Size 2-3 monsters, this card usually won't hit maximum potential, so keep that in mind.

If you've ever wanted a Danger World weapon for Dragon World, here's your chance. Super Dragonblade, Dragoeternal is one hell of a weapon. 7000/2 with Penetrate is monstrous, but the call cost is equally monstrous. First, Life Break 5, meaning he doesn't fit well with Green Dragon Song-based decks that gain life forever. Second, 2 gauge and discard your entire hand? Ouch. Even more ouch is the fact that Bushiroad ruled that since the discarding the hand is part of the equip cost, you have to discard at least 1 card (unlike for Asura, where discarding the hand is part of the resolution). Definitely overcosted if you discard any more than 1 card, so Dragoeternal is probably not a consistent weapon to depend on.

Eww...I'm on a shield!

Ruling clarification on Dual Movingforce, the best Impact for Dragon World: Penetrate damage does not count because the damage is being dealt by Penetrate and not the weapon itself.

Flying Dragon Shield is pretty lackluster. At first glance, it seems like a Chillax!, but closer inspection reveals that A. it can only reduce damage from attacks, B. it can't nullify an attack, and C. you can only cast it to stop a direct attack. Add on the 1 gauge cost and it's a pretty limiting card, so don't run it.

"Gao" means "Roar" in Japanese.
Now you get it.

If you thought Gargantua Punisher was done, we've got another one coming. Roaring Slash! Gargantua Punisher!! costs 5 gauge. That's basically screaming "I won't be played consistently ever", unless you have some seriously good gauge engines. Hey, I wonder what Thunder Formation and Burn Energy are? Really good gauge engines. Okay, so this card is live if you can get the gauge. Is it worth it? Math says...barely. -1 card, -2.5 in gauge. 5 direct damage, and since every direct damage is worth 0.75 advantage, that's +3.75. I don't know if I'd spend 5 gauge just to get a tiny +0.25. Sure, you win the game, but that's what Gargantua Punisher did anyways. I am digging the fact that you can cast it earlier and just win the game earlier.

Basically, if you have a strong gauge engine you can use this to full effect, but otherwise vanilla Gargantua Punisher is simply more flexible and conducive to the average deck. And even then, you kinda have to build for it.

Gargantua SMASH

Dragon World has no shortage of weapons, but who knows how many have come out and totally not made the cut. Well, here's another one. No matter how good the Impacts might be, the actual sword Gao swings around is pretty bad. Gargantua Blade, Black Smasher has some crazy numbers associated with it so we'll analyze it step by step. Your normal vanilla weapon would be 3000/2, and you can get this just by a -1 equip. Black Smasher's stats are 7000/3, meaning that stat-wise you get about +1.5 worth in stats. On-equip, you also gain 3 life which is another +1.5. Note that both these gains are in soft resources. To equip it, you need to expend 2 gauge (-1) and ditch 2 cards (-2). Wow, all that for a wash? That's pretty not worth it. Especially since Gargantua Blade doesn't even have Penetrate or some other effect that can keep it relevant.

Thanks for the advice,
Bushiroad

It's nice to see that my advantage scale is still working, even for the newer cards. That's not a coincidental wash, you know. Knowing the math behind Buddyfight cards is like having Bushiroad in the palm of your hands.

You can do some crazy stuff with Dragonic Force Field because the effect lasts for the entire turn. Think about it. The entire turn. It can protect your attacking monsters from getting trolled by counter destruction spells, and it can save your board from field wipe. Though it is kinda expensive and only protects your left and right. Would die to have this card in Legend World, imagine how good Heroes would be with it.

The bond between dragons
and humans...

For spells like Dragon Trust, using math is essential. Dragon Trust is only -2 gauge because the card goes into the soul of your target monster, a wash transaction. It's up to the player to decide whether they want to pay 2 gauge for Penetrate and whether the target monster has enough card quality to warrant an extra on-field copy. You can't use it on a Size 3 (which disappoints my Inferno Armor strats) but it does work pretty well with base Drum, Jackknife "Aggressor", Million Rapier Dragon, and many more.

One-to-One is pretty bad...unless. Unless! If you run Dragoanthem with One-to-One, you're getting some pretty sick damage from that. In one turn, you're already making the card a wash (disregarding your opponent). Or if you use One-to-One with Victory Strike...but that's a bit of a stretch.

So shiny...

Dragonic Survey is better than Dragonic Crush if you just want to kill spells, but you probably want flexibility.

Gold Dragon Shield is worse Chillax! but better Flying Dragon Shield. You don't gain life but you can stop any damage, including direct damage, which makes it all the more relevant. You also don't need an open center.

More weapon choices. Strong in burn meta, good sideboard option alongside heavy crit monsters.

Okay. I'll admit, Dragodefense is pretty disgusting. With so much good Size 3 support in Dragon World already, this card just makes things even more gross for your opponent. It's hard to bust through some 11000 wall that you've set up with practically no surefire way to remove it. Even worse when that wall can Move around *cough cough Bastard Sword *cough cough.

The eye of the storm

As far as new Impacts go, it's hard to say whether or not Fifth Omni Divine Arts, Howling Storm is good or not. Raging Spirits got a cheaper version of this card, with an easier restriction even. More importantly, why do they keep giving Dragon World new Impacts? We don't need these. We have Gargantua.

Superior Buddy is one of those cards that can be great with the right buddy monster, but terrible with others. While most people will slap it with vanilla Drum, Inferno, Double Attackers, and spammable Size 1s, I'd like to offer an idea to get those creative ideas really flowing. How about with Boomerang Dragon? Sure, it's only 1 crit and as lousy stats, but you do basically guarantee it every turn. It punishes your opponent heavily for guarding efficiently with paper walls and allows you to link with Boomerang to clear something in the center and still get the damage tick off.

Right back at'cha!

Dragon Return System is a great card, don't get me wrong. It basically negates the need for Thunder Formation to exist ever and makes Boomerang Dragon the literal best card in the entire game. But if you really need to cut down on deck space, Dragon Return System can be that 1-of that you just have because to be honest, you probably don't need this card. Dragon World has become very gauge-friendly over the sets and Blue Shields are often enough to get you through most of the early game. Plus, DRS is basically dead without Boomerang so you face that issue as well. Draw has always been a problem in Dragon World, so there's a pretty good chance DRS won't pay off all the time.

This card's sole purpose for existence is to BM your opponent when they're at 1 life.

Rise again! And again! And again! Hahaha!

Dragon Secret Arts, Dragon Resurrection is SO GOOD. Okay, so this card basically acts as 4 more copies of your Buddy monster, except these four must be called at the Final Phase instead of during your main phase. How is this good, you ask? Well, if you have something like Drum Bunker Dragon as your buddy, you can use his cheap Soulguard to get some nice shielding while gaining life. Alongside Green Dragon Song, this can be seriously dangerous for your opponent.

It gets better. What if your buddy is Inferno Armor Dragon? You can call it and if you get a Armordragon in the soul, you can pop a monster right then and there! Meaning you can ignore killing something just to pop it in the Final Phase. If you can properly defend it in the coming turn (Dragon Barrier, Dragoenergy), you can use that soul for more popping purposes. Basically, as long as you're willing to buckle down on some fancy buddy interactions, you can really get your value out of resurrection.

Round and around

Dragonic Loop is a really great card, especially for Blue Sky Knights (out of all the archetypes) since they can bounce and loop on-heal effects for centuries. It's also a good play with Dragoarcher in the Thunder Knights deck. And in Dragon Knights, well, everything that has an on-play effect can be looped pretty effectively (Tomoe especially).

A new Dragonic Grimoire has been printed and made available to Dragon World - Backwater Inscription. The choice between the two is an interesting discussion. Backwater Inscription basically trades one of the extra cards you were to draw from Grimoire for 2 gauge. While mathematically equivalent, Grimoire and Backwater Inscription serve two entirely different purposes. Grimoire is for those decks that need to grab a combo piece in a pinch. You get hit to low life, you need to end it this turn, so you drop everything and try to draw yourself into a win. Backwater Inscription, on the other hand, is for those decks that usually have the combo already accessible easily and just need to get the resources to fuel it. For example, Thunder Formation! is a card that works phenomenally well with Backwater Inscription (even though the card itself is quite lackluster). In other words, you need to use Backwater Inscription for the 2 gauge specifically and not counting too much on the card draw.

Dragonic Endure is one of those "DragCharge but better" clones that I can get behind. 3 gauge for taking damage (which you can do on your own turn now) can ramp gauge really fast and Dragon World definitely has great ways to spend it (Final Phase!). If you combo this with the Fifth Omni that damages yourself for 2 gauge you can pump 5 gauge for virtually no cost.

Dragodesperate is fantastic against Size 2 Double Attackers (there are a lot out there) as well as ridiculous Items. It doesn't quite stop the disgusting dual-wield Knight combo but it does stop just about everything else.

That swag pose

Thunder Break Stance. On first glance, it seems to be a pretty bad version of "gain 2 life". You mill 2 cards, you can only prevent 1 damage at a time, and since the card is on the field it can be counter-played. But there are very weird instances where Thunder Break Stance is actually good. Specifically when you don't want to have lots of life but you don't want to die either. Like maintaining Life Break points for Omni Drum's ability and stuff. From that point of view, Thunder Break Stance is better than any healing spell for decks that still need to heal. Which shouldn't be any deck, really, so the card is still bad, but not necessarily worse than just like, Dragonic Heal.

I've been brainstorming decks that can actually use Dragonic Climax to good effect. I'll get back to you when I come up with something. But for now, please look at a card that tries to be cute in mixing archetypes but ultimately sucks a lot.

- updated to H-BT04, CP01, H-EB03, 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.