Adventurer

The true spirit of Dungeon World lies with those who are brave and strong enough to challenge the dungeons. Adventurer is the first archetype to feature human beings. Like honest-to-goodness humans. No weird anthropomorphic demons or chainmail-clad dragonriders. Finally, an archetype that appeals to my aesthetics.

Adventurers are at their best working as a team. With their team experience, they can easily search each other out to form a party ready for dungeon raiding. When they work together, they can support each other with a variety of effects like bonus damage and resource gain. The best part of Adventurers, however, is that like their RPG counterparts, they can never be truly taken out. Even if they die, they just revive themelves, take the experience penalty, and try again. Adventurers won't give up until they fulfill their mission and receive due quest compensation.

I think this is the right time to fully clarify the link attack rulings that have been plaguing the community for the past month. After speaking to multiple Bushiroad officials and receiving varying answers, I'm going to go with the answer I've received from the most trustworthy sources. The key for understanding link attacks is to understand when the trigger on all of the abilities is pulled. In Buddyfight, once a trigger is pulled, the effect cannot stop as long as A. any continuous conditions are met and B. the effect or trigger is not nullified. This is why Asmodai can kill using Dangerous Backdrop even if he was Dragonic Thunder'd but not if he was Begone!!'d.

In the link attack case, the condition of "When this card link attacks" is a trigger and activates upon declaration of link attack. As in, every single effect with the wording "When this card link attacks" will fire and resolve simultaneously. All at once. Your opponent will get a total of 2 counter timings: one at the link attack declaration, and one after (each) ability(s) have been resolved.This means that if you want to counter an Adventurer link attack, you need to use a counter spell before the declaration of the attack. Once your opponent says the words "I link attack" then it's too late to do anything.

I am legend!

The leader of the Adventurer squad is Legendary Brave, Tasuku. He's not just a Brave; he's a legendary brave. While legends are forever, Tasuku is the exact opposite, dying at the end of the turn he's called like some Skull Warrior. His stats are decent, and he gets +4000 defense which is +1 in terms of advantage. However, since Tasuku dies immediately, this defense boost is absolutely meaningless so I don't even know why Bushiroad bothered (I'm not going to count it towards his advantage). He's insanely demanding, since you have to pay 2 gauge to even get him on the field in the first place, and he's super liable to bounce and destruction effects. His effect is pretty good, however. You can link attack with another Adventurer to give 2 attacking units (himself and another card) Penetrate. Since Penetrate is costed at about +1 advantage, and Tasuku gives 2 cards Penetrate, you see that he pays for his -2 gauge call-and-die cost.

In fact, you should just treat Tasuku as a spell that gives a unit Penetrate and deals 2 damage to your opponent (it's what he essentially does). That doesn't sound bad at all, but since Tasuku must do this with attacks while he's on the field in play it's more likely that he'll be blocked or removed in some fashion. He's certainly not the best or most consistent card Adventurers have, but he can situationally swing the damage balance in your favor. Note that if he attacks with both an Adventurer and a Dungeon Enemy, he can choose to give the Dungeon Enemy Penetrate.

Can your bard drop a
beat like me?

The real star of the show is Dancing Magician, Tetsuya. He comes in and sets the tempo for your victory, like any good bard will do. When he link attacks with an Adventurer, you can choose a card in the link attack and give it Double Attack for the turn (again, you can choose a Dungeon Enemy). I don't think I need to spend too much time explaining why this ability is amazing. You can restand any Size 1 monster, Size 2 monster, or weapon you have in your deck. Damage starts racking up very fast with this rapper on the field. With the link attack rulings, you can't stop Tetsuya from going off but you can target the Double Attacker he creates after it gets the ability. Make sure your opponent declares the target of all these abilities before you start countering so you can neutralize as many of these buffs as you can.

Avalon, equip! Excalibur!

Adventurers always should be equipped with the right gear. None of this Iron Sword business, we need the elite stuff. Currently, Dungeon World's legendary boss drop is Brave Equipment, Glory Seeker. This card is sick. You equip it by discarding a card from your hand (which you can then just revive with other cards in your deck). It has 5000 power and 3 crit, making it the equivalent of Dragobreach for the same advantage cost (-1), but since the payment method is better he's already quality positive. As if that wasn't enough, Glory Seeker has a built in revival passive. When your opponent thinks he's so good and Gargantua's you for game, you can drop the item and mill the top card of your deck. If it's a spell, your life is set to 3 life. Just like that. How much does dropping the item cost? Nothing, because you've paid for it beforehand as an investment cost (see my article on Weapons if you're confused). So the +3 life is essentially free. Also you escape from guaranteed death.

As a deckbuilder, you need to be focused on getting a right ratio of spells into your deck so that this item can go off seamlessly when you need it to. Don't go overboard, though, since monsters are superior to spells in most aspects. Luckily, since Dungeon World is full of spells that tutor, they act as pseudocopies of your monsters anyways. You want roughly 20 spells in your deck at least, which gives you an at-worst 36% probability of getting your revive. Not something to depend on, but definitely can save your ass every few games. Remember, this percentage changes depending on your draws.

This isn't even
my final form

Your main tank and damage-dealer is going to be Brave, Drum. Drum's Dungeon World form, believe it or not, is even better than his Dragon World form. He gets the same 1 gauge top-soulcharge +0.5 advantage. While he's lacking 2000 defense (-0.5), anybody who's read my Magic Numbers article knows that means practically nothing. And his ability far makes up for it. When he attacks (none of this link attack business), you play RPS (rock-paper-scissors) on declaration for Drum to get Penetrate for the turn. As with all on-attack effects, your opponent will get a counter at the declaration of the effect and after the effect resolves. This gives your opponent a chance to see whether Drum will actually get the Penetrate before countering with something like Solomon's Shield (you can prevent this by link attacking). With 3-crit, Penetrate is a +1.5 for this guy. As with all RPS gains, you take the expected value of the gain which ends up being +0.75. So Drum is a straight-up +0.75 that's more like a +1 due to the way his stats are distributed. That's just disgustingly good.

Oh, and if you fail the first time to get Penetrate, you can restand him with Tetsuya's ability and RPS again for a second try.

Poke poke poke

For an archetype focused around link attacking, you don't have very many good Size 1's to exploit. Kuguru and Ocker Glaiser are both pretty bad, and Kirwa is only situationally good against certain decks. You do have Missile Magician, Addrick who deals 1 direct damage (+0.75) on link attack. That almost makes up for the link attack minus all by himself. A strategy to use with Addrick is to call 3 Size 1's on the field, one being Addrick and another being Tetsuya. Link attack Tetsuya with Addrick, deal 1 direct damage, and give Addrick Double Attack. Then link attack Addrick with the other Size 1 to deal 1 direct damage again. That's an uncosted unblockable 2 damage before any of the actual attacks have been considered, dealt in increments of 1 damage so that White Dragon Shield and Chillax! will be wasted. His stats by himself are not bad either, and 4000 power is comfortable range to clear a majority of threats, especially via link attack (note that he hits the common value of 6000 power with Tetsuya).

Everyone! Give me your
power!

Since your other Size 1's suck, chances are you're going to be using a weapon instead. Weapons fill in the lack of presence and pressure in Adventurer decks. It's not a bad tradeoff, since you have Pillar of Fire counterspells to use when your center is empty (also Rolling Stone won't hurt yourself). You already have Glory Seeker which is an awesome late-game item to use. The other weapon to consider is Brave's Sword, Soma Sword. This broadsword costs 2 gauge to equip and is missing a critical (-0.5) if compared to similar costed vanilla swords. Soma Sword makes up the missing advantage by, surprise, a link attack buff. Namely, a self-Penetrate buff (+1). Combined with other Adventurers, Soma Sword can deal tons of damage very easily. Image the Addrick example I listed above, except you link Addrick with Soma for the second attack. Now you've got a 9000 power attack headed towards your opponent's center with Penetrate for 2 damage. That's more or less 4 guaranteed damage in a single turn.

Hey, don't you think
there's been a lot fewer
traps late-

Also, whenever Tasuku and Tetsuya's abilities are activated and there's a weapon in the link attack, please do the smart thing and give the weapon all the effects. Counter-removal for weapons are far fewer and rarer than counter-removal for monsters. Of course, against a Danger World (Double Guillotine) or Katana World (Shooting Star, Bare Hand Intercept) deck you might want to reconsider but just read the situation and make the smart decision.

In a brilliant decision of the modern trading card gaming age, Bushiroad does the incredible and presents us with the following amazing cards. First of all, 5 stars for concept. The idea of incorporating missions/quests, the heart and core of all RPG games, into a trading card game is just brilliant. Secondly, 5 stars for art. The pictures on these cards are well-drawn and quite unique, especially given the mission titles. And lastly, 5 stars for utter brokenness. Words cannot describe, but I'll do my best.

The pose of a party
member added

Let's start with "Form a Party!". The first time you play this card, it's a strict -1 from hand as an investment. Then, whenever you play another Mission card, this card resolves for a +1.5 effect in the form of a free tutor for an Adventurer and +1 life. Yes, that's right. Tutoring, which has been costed at -2 for +1 card until now (Jackknife Braveheart), is bestowed for the measly cost of -1 for +1. And you gain life, one of the only ways Dungeon World has of regaining life. This Mission also cancels into itself, meaning you can cast one and then another and get the tutor and life while the second spell remains on the field, ready to be activated later. Oh, did I mention that you can run 4 of these cards in any deck and still get +0.5 overall? You use 4 cards for 3 tutored cards and 3 life. -4, +3 and +1.5 advantage in life. Just by itself. That's how good this card is.

Time to grind on skellies!

Oh, but there's more. "Defeat Monsters!" is a interesting flair of Nice One! and Survival Chance. You -1 from hand, pay 1 gauge, and give yourself the quest to defeat 2 monsters with Adventurers. Every monster you kill will give this Set card 1 top-soulcharge. Once you've fulfilled the quest, the NPC (yourself) gives you the 2 cards in the Mission's soul (the Mission is discarded). So 1 card and 1 gauge for draw 2, essentially. You can only Set 1 at a time, which means you can't fulfill this quest simultaneously with another copy of itself. Fair enough, this basically means you can only draw 2 once every turn, just like Nice One! and Survival Chance's restrictions. That's still really good, and makes sure that your link attacks to get over strong monsters are adequately rewarded. Your opponent can try to screw this card over by removing it when it's at 1 soul, which is the only downfall to this card, but they usually have to use one of the -1 card -2 gauge removal spells which is not worth it for them.

#everyanime
#alwaysthisscene

There was another Mission...oh, right, "Rest at Nazaro Hot Springs!" (nobody knows where Nazaro is, by the way). Set the spell and pay 1 gauge. Then, when your Adventurer is destroyed by an attack, you can put up to 2 Adventurer from the drop zone into your hand. Due to the way Duel Sieger "Spartand"'s effect has been ruled (you can place the destroyed Duel Sieger into the drop zone before activating Spartand's ability), you can select the Adventurer just destroyed with this effect. Also, this works even if the destroyed monster remains on the field with an ability like Soulguard. Hmm, let's see what this card can do. 1 card and 1 gauge for the ability to salvage any two Adventurer cards. We're talking monsters, weapons, Impacts, etc. For all you Weiss players out there, you can appreciate just how amazing salvage is. While it's not as amazing in Buddyfight due to the lack of climax cancels and leveling up to populate the drop zone, since gauge pays out to the drop it's almost just as effective. In other words, this card is ridiculous. Late-game, salvage 2 is almost the same as tutor 2. Thanks to this card, you don't have to run 4 copies of certain situational cards like Tasuku or Soma Sword just because you can get them back so consistently. Once you've seen an Adventurer card in gauge or in hand, it's basically continually accessible for the rest of the game.

If you care what I think about the numbers of cards to run, I would say something like 4 "Form a Party!", 3 "Defeat Monsters!", and 3 "Rest at Nazaro Hot Springs!" is solid.

Best tech ever

Your toolbox techs in Dungeon World should almost always contain a certain weapon that should strike fear into about 60% of your opponent's hearts. Dragon Vanquishing Sword, Dragonslayer is 2 gauge for 4000 power 3 crit. By itself it's just 1000 shy of vanilla standards, which isn't bad. Yet it can gain 4000 power just by attacking any card with "Dragon" in it's attribute. Yes, Dragon Lords, Wild Dragons, and Duel Dragons all count. Also, since the effect says "this turn", it will stack on itself if it gets to attack twice (*cough cough Tetsuya). But honestly, 8000 power is more than enough to devastate any Dragon deck out there. It takes out Spartand. It takes out Death Sickle Dragon. It takes out Geronimo. There's no escape. This thing takes out everything.

Overcosted but the style points are worth it.

#notabuff.

Typical cocky dragoons

For the first time since BT03, Dungeon World has gotten a full (extra) booster's worth of support. Fantastic. More characters from the shows in card form. We welcome Blue Knight, Noboru to the stage. He's basically Dragoanthem as a character, which is pretty sick. He can't attack either side but repeatedly slamming 6000/1 down the center is sure to do plenty of damage, either clearing their wall or doing cheap pings of damage consistently. As if that wasn't it, Noboru also has Move which means he can protect you afterwards. It's a shame he eats into your Size 2 options, but he's definitely a worthy choice, especially in Adventurer-focused builds (replacing Phoenix).

And Tasuku gets another card, one even better than the last. Legendary Messiah, Tasuku (now he's the savior?) originally looked as bad as his original card, coming in and doing something cool but leaving by the end of the turn. But wait a minute - Messiah doesn't leave at the end of the turn, he leaves at the end of his battle. Which means that the moment he enters battle, he's going to be gone right away. That's ridiculously great because you call call him into your center and he'll get out of the way so you can swing with your weapon too. And then he goes to the drop zone? What? Just to be salvaged with Nazaro Hot Springs later? This is amazing. For a world with little life ramp and some gauge issues, Messiah comes in, giffs you resources, pokes for damage/links for clear, and then goes bye bye so you can crush them with Glory Seeker. Pretty staple, if you ask me.

Sekai seifuku

Running Messiah in the center means that your entire field should be Size 1's only, which means he's more suited to be Adventurer-focused just like Noboru (No Phoenix/Orser). Thankfully, we've got even better Size 1 support coming so this kind of deck does fairly well without the plussing from Continue/Orser.

Province Baron, Shido is here to prove two things. 1. Even antagonists can get cards, which is pretty awesome and 2. Bushiroad's sense of humor has finally translated over into English. 410 power and defense. Shi-do. Perfection. But for all intents and purposes, his stats are 1000/2/1000, which is fine. Here's the part that's not fair. He's Death Ruler, Gallows without a call cost and -2000 (completely irrelevant). Adventurers have a hard time dealing with a heavy center wall, but Shido just walks by that wall as if it doesn't exist.

I have not cut something
worthy

5000/2/1000 with Move, as long as you have Akatsuki or a Mission card. Nobody's complaining about Eastern Swordsman Zanya, this card is great and looks awesome to boot.

But Akatsuki's getting even more attention than Zanya because of gimmicks. When this card link attacks, let the games being. Choose a Mission card and giff it a soul, stackable with every Akatsuki you link attack with (up to 3). Now, let's talk fun stuff. Defeat Monsters has the clause that when this card's soul is 2 or more, you must add the soul to hand and destroy Defeat Monsters in resolution. But the thing is, the resolution of Defeat Monsters is an Auto triggered ability - the same as Akatsuki's effect. When there are simultaneously multiple triggered abilities in stand-by, the turn player can choose the order of resolution.

Wombo combo

You guessed it, you can choose to resolve Akatsuki's effect(s) first and then resolve Defeat Monsters, which means you add all the soul as long as it's two or more - three or four, even. That's right, four soul Defeat Monsters can happen with three Akatsuki. Plussing for days. It's actually probably not a great idea, but it's freaking awesome.

The funkiness ups to a whole new level with Mission Card, "THE Teamwork". Every link attack done with THE Teamwork on the field gives THE Teamwork +1 soul, just like Defeat Monsters does with killing stuff. When THE Teamwork gets to the 2 soul point, you can add one card from the soul to your hand, the rest goes to the gauge and you gain 1 life. It's like Dragon Emperor Legends, that really broken card in Ancient World that everyone loves. It's not immediate, but it's still a good plus and in resources you need as well.

Of course, Akatsuki's shenanigans can give you a 5 soul THE Teamwork. Hyper Energy got nothing on this.

Purge means you bleed

With the advent of Adventurer-Knights, the deck is getting a bit of a boost in raw power. The deck always functioned well in terms of beatdown, but now things are getting a bit out of control.

Purge Knight, Vlad Dracula comes in for 2 gauge and somewhat impressive stats. 6000/7000 warrants about 1 gauge worth, but note that he doesn't have any crit. Don't let that bother you, because just like his former Dragon Knight counterpart, this vampire dude gets +1 crit for every different Adventurer monster in your drop zone. Note that it's different, so unlike previous Vlad who could amp to 6 crit really fast, this deck has a decidedly harder time doing so. You're likely going to end up around 3, which is mathematically worth that extra 2 gauge to call it. But since there's no theoretical cap on the crit value and since Adventurers can toolbox for days, you can try to run a huge variety of different weebs and get Vlad hitting for 10+ crit or something funky.

For glory!

More sensible than Vlad but equally ham is new El Quixote. He gets his old ability of giving free gauge, except now he has to link attack as per Adventurer standards. Don't worry, he also gets +1 crit and Penetrate, meaning he tacks on 2 damage and a good 3000 power to basically any combo. And sense the buffs last till the end of the turn, you can restand him with Tetsuya and crank it up to 3 crit (double Penetrate doesn't activate twice, unfortunately).

With all this extra crit, what better way to put it to use than to just keep attacking with it? Full Strash Formation gives you just the opportunity. This Impact allows you to restand all Adventurer on the field and link attack with all of them. It doesn't explicitly state link attack but it is one, which means link attack bonuses will indeed activate (El Quixote to 4 crit?!) You can seriously bash people's faces in with this deck now that it's got a reliable and powerful finisher.

Finally, a new Mission card to play with. Earning Experience Points seems like a good idea when you can use that EXP to give your weapons Double Attack. Double Attacking Glory Seeker on top of Tetsuya sounds like a huge pain. Also fueling the drop zone for Hot Springs and/or Orser Kleinz is pretty good as well.

I can think of a lot of cards that I'd rather be spending gauge on than Rouga, but I guess giving Rouga Double Attack with Tetsuya is pretty hilarious.

- updated to H-BT03, 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.