72 Pillars

There's a bit of a devil in all of us.

There are times you play to win, there are times you play to have fun. And then there are times when you just want to completely mess with your opponent like nothing else. Out of all the Worlds and archetypes in the Buddyfight universe, nobody gives you the options to do this better than 72 Pillars. This is probably the number one deck at completely screwing with your opponents. From ridiculous destruction effects to incredible advantage engines, these demons will create utter hell for the other player. Their concept is simple and their execution is extremely streamlined and efficient, making them one of the easiest decks to build and one of the hardest to execute.

Your goal is not to simply win, but to win in such a way that makes your opponent want to flip tables. ┬─┬ ノ( ゜-゜ノ)

He's a gangsta

We start with the boss of the 72 Pillars world, Belial. I've heard people dismiss this guy as "bad" or "unnecessary". Are you guys insane? Out of all the Grade 3's introduced in Set 1, Belial is arguably the best and remains a pivotal point of a good 72 Pillars deck. Just look what he gives you. With an on-call cost of 3 gauge (-1.5), he gains the Double Attack ability (+1) off a 7K power - pretty good. He also mills the top 3 cards of both players deck and if there's a 72 Pillars card among them, you can destroy any monster for free (+1). What are the odds of this happening? 69.3% in a deck with 20 demons and even higher in a mirror match. Pretty decent odds. Not only is Belial more often than not a +0.5, he also mills cards to fuel the drop zone engine we have with 72 Pillars, allowing for even quicker rushes. He is undoubtedly a mainstay in all 72 Pillars decks.

Do I even need to explain Asmodai? Most broken card in game. Drop and kill. Rinse and repeat. Somehow, he still retains a ridiculous 5000 power even with his broken ability. And he's a Size 1.

Prepare for trouble!

Devil Advantage is the first of our drop-zone advantage spells. Like Nice One!, you pay 1 gauge and cast the spell (-1.5) to gain 2 cards to your hand (+2). With Devil Advantage, however, there's three important points: you salvage these cards from the drop, they both have to be the same 72 Pillars card, and you can cast this as many times a turn as you want. Devil Advantage is insanely good - in any other game, a card like this would be tournament banned (imagine having something like this in Weiss). You can retrieve those Asmodais, Buers, and your lineup of incredible Size 1 powerhouses at any time. Needless to say, you want to max these out for super consistency and infinite Asmodai spam.

Normally, when I see a card like Demon Realm Negotiator, Gusion, I just want to say "meh" and move on. Sure, he's a +0.5 on-call but at the expense of a -1 to his stats (vanilla Size 2's are 5000/2/5000). 3000 is pitifully nothing. But unfortunately for 72 Pillars and fortunately for Gusion, there's a rather odd lack of good Size 2's to run. Gusion retains a solid 2-crit which allows him to be used offensively for decent damage, often placed in the center to guard for a turn.

Prepare for...oh, I already
used that one...

Speaking of bad Size 2's, take a look at Liar, Fullfool. He's got some pretty nice offensive stats, but since they're -0.5 from vanilla standards you'd expect a nice ability in return. Instead, you get one of the coolest and most under-supported abilities in the game. On-call, you can Set a spell for free. Awesome, but what in the world am I supposed to Set? The rather useless Noisy Danceroom that can't even bounce Fullfool again? Upon further inspection, that's the only set spell Magic World has that Fullfool can use because the Ark spell's entire effect comes from it's call cost, which you would waive with Fullfool's effect (thanks, DB). Cabal Preparations simply has nothing half-decent to prepare. Maybe in the future we'll get some sick Set spell and Fullfool makes a comeback, but for now he's just an example of the awkward Size 2 selection 72 Pillars gets. I mean, when you're running the 3-crit vanilla in a meta deck, you know that your Size 2 selection is pretty bleak.

Buer goes where he
pleases

Demon Doctor, Buer is here to cure your gauge issues. And your life issues. Actually, Buer is a pretty nice one-stop shop for a lot of what Magic World needs. On-call, he gets +0.5 to the gauge, making up for his lack of crit (he's still missing some offensive stats but give him a break). When you do this, you have to destroy him, but this happens at the end of your opponent's turn. Which means that he's the perfect card to call to the center; if he's going to die, he might as well absorb an attack. This allows Buer to be a really annoying nuisance to your opponent as they waste an attack killing something that was doomed already.

By the way, the topgauge is completely optional. If you don't do it, Buer doesn't doom himself, but there's hardly a situation where you'd want to skip out on using it.

Everybody loves
Saturday night!

What. The. Hell. How does this card even exist? I really would like to know what the creators of Buddyfight were thinking when they designed Great Spell, Saturday Night Devil Fever. This is truly the embodiment of unleashing the lowest gate of Tartarus. By paying a measly 2 gauge and 1 life (and casting the spell, -2.5 total), you can call 3 Size 1 72 Pillars cards from the drop zone without paying the call cost (+3). As a Counter. Meaning that at the end of your Attack Phase, you can casually cast this spell and get 3 completely new units to attack with. While gaining advantage. The restrictions on the spell barely mean anything (you're calling 3 of the 6 cards anyways) and you do end up refreshing your entire drop zone resource, but you can always mill more cards into it with Belial or something. And once you've cast this spell, you're basically gunning for game anyways. This can guarantee about 6 extra damage in a single turn.

Nobody notices that I'm
petting a dragon

Set 2 gives us something new for the already amazing 72 Pillars support we have. However, new isn't always good. At least Great Duke, Astaroth doesn't drastically change the fact that Size 2 selection for demons are pretty bad. I've gone over this card a long time ago in my first ever article on card advantage, but basically he's only a wash when you use his gauge-reducing ability once. Even then, we need to highlight his quality: Double Attack on a 5000 power monster isn't ideal. It's great on Bladewing Phoenix because Phoenix is cheap as hell. It's bad on Astaroth because he's freaking expensive. In fact, if you're not planning on giving him at least 1 soul for Soulguard then don't bother calling him, since in a mirror match he'd simply be bounced right back to hand. Thanks for wasting 3 gauge on nothing.

*wink*

Then there are cards that just make me want to laugh. Dandy Guy, Sitri. Hah. What a troll card. Let's say that he's a -0.5 in vanilla stats for the ability to reveal the top card of your deck and cast any spell revealed for free. I, uh, what? This thing is so troll I don't even know where to begin. At least you're not forced to cast the spell; that would be the worst (imagine revealing a Solomon Shield). And while you can waive the cast cost, you can't waive the cast restrictions or requirements. Advantage-wise, he's great since you're essentially drawing and casting a spell all in one go (+1 minimum, up to possible +3) - but the complete lack of control or consistency renders this strategy virtually unusable. I suppose a case could be made with running this card and max copies of Bastin Caps for maximum trollability. Hey, it's a dandy idea.

Ash Roller!

Street Racer, Eligos is a phenomenal card. When your opponent declares an attack, you can pay 1 life to call this card and redirect the attack to this card (-0.5). This counts as your one-Counter-per-battle and forces your opponent's hand. Then, when this card is destroyed, you can pay another 1 life and get him back (+0.5). He's a wash overall, but using him correctly will drastically reduce the damage a Magic World player will take, as you can dampen 3-crit or higher attacks. On your turn, he's another great 2-crit Size 1 attacker.

It's time to rock!

Great Spell, Devil's Rock and Roll is an interesting card. I hesitate to say that it's good because it's not a counter which means it doesn't give you extra attacks like some other Great Spell does. What it does do, however, is replenish your field if the field is empty. Ideally you want to cast this spell when you've just been nuked and grab 3 Size 1 monsters from the top 5 cards of your deck. Tricky, but doable - if this ideal scenario occurs, Devil's Rock and Roll will only be a -0.5 opportunity cost. However, this probably isn't going to happen. Out of 5 cards, the odds of grabbing at least 3 Size 1 monsters isn't too fantastic, and you're more likely to get a large amount of spells instead. Furthermore, if those monster have their own call cost then those need to be paid as well. There isn't enough consistency with this card, but the situational plays makes it seem pretty okay as a secret tech. You also return your opponent's monsters which is a hit-or-miss.

Gauge-golden

We can finally replace Gusion in 72 Pillars decks with a better Size 2. Demon Sommelier, Zagan reduces the cost of spells by 1 gauge, similar to Astaroth. The main difference is that Zagan is free and doesn't intrude on your resources while Astaroth is stronger but more committal. Zagan is more flexible and flexibility should be valued more than expensive Double Attack on a Size 2.

Solomon's Great Barrier is a pretty hit-or-miss card. It changes all your Size 2's to Size 1 which is really good but there's a pretty big problem, namely that Size 1 monsters are easier to get hit by counter removal spells. So if you use this card and call a bunch of expensive Size 2's, your opponent can very easily negate all that advantage. If you want to maximize Great Barrier, you have to run essentially all free Size 2's - which means no Astaroth. That's fine, you didn't really need him in the first place. Gusion and Zagan are both fine, and Zagan even allows you to set the spell for free.

Best friends forever!

It gets better for Great Barrier because it allows you to use Devil's Rock and Roll and call Size 2's to the field without messing up the Size limit. This means that Devil's Rock and Roll will miss less (though it's still not worth it, in my opinion). Saturday Night Devil Fever, since it specifically targets Size 1's in the drop, misses out on any synergy with Solomon's Barrier.

Solomon's Great Barrier can be played for free with either Zagan, Astaroth, or Fullfool (guess who's best) and can be searched out with the new Size 1, Demon Realm Architect, Gamigin.

The last card that matters to 72 Pillars is Bestie!, the 72 Pillar counterattack spell. It's freaking ridiculous. You can reveal any 72 Pillars you have in hand and add those stats to the defending monster (and Counterattack). It's like Honest from Yugioh. With the revamped Size 2 lineup, you're definitely going to be running some good cards to use this with. It's also a good reason to run Belial for a +7000/5000, all but guaranteeing a +1 from using this spell.

Don't scoff at lion dude. He's a great T1-T2 drop that gives you some pretty good advantage without wasting anything. In fact, as a turn 1 play he probably ranks one of the best in the entire game.

But what's even better than lion dude? Consistent 3-crit on a Size 1 for a measly 1 gauge investment. 72 Pillar rush went from pretty good to almost unbeatable.

Git gud at janken, scrub

Let's be fair. You're running Judge Asmodai's Super Impartial 3 Rounds, Rock! Paper! Scissors! because you want to have max copies of the most adorable excited Tetsuya you've ever seen and Zanya's despairing face just makes it all the more incredible. The card itself? So RNG-based it's hilarious. If you win all three games of Jan-ken-pon, you get to draw 3 cards for paying 1 gauge and dropping the climax, a whopping +1.5 of advantage in an already advantage-heavy deck. Every game you don't win is one less advantage - so +0.5, -0.5, and then...rock bottom. If you lose all three games, not only do you get nothing (-1.5), but your opponent gets to draw 3 cards in revenge (+3 for them). Which means you have about a 12.5% of just straight-up -4.5 from a single card - the most the game has ever seen.

You can run it for the laughs, but keep in mind that tears might be coming your way.

I smell JSDF propaganda

So you know, Magic World never really cared about having stats. Ever. It was just not really a consideration to have...until they decided to be funny with Asmodai's Omni Lord form and add an extra 0 to his original base stats. Yeah, Second Omni Demon Lord, Asmodai has a ridiculous 50000/3/10000 to his name, alongside Counterattack, Penetrate, and Lifelink 2. Very confusing to look at. For starters, since power above roughly 12000 is generally overkill, 50000 is in essence no different than 14000. But the 10000 defense is very crucial because that does matter a lot - it's absolutely huge and makes Omnidai one of the biggest and cheapest tanks available to any world. You're getting all those juicy stats for just 2 gauge!

He comes with a protection ability that is costed way too high for normal people (-2.5) to keep his big ass on the field. Luckily, Magic World has some new toys to play with discarding from the hand to get advantages, but you're probably going to want to protect him through other means. And here's where Omnidai's true potential shines: in other worlds. Specifically Ancient World, where the Size 3 support gives Omnidai the tools to troll around all day. But also Dragon World since Dragon Barrier is a good card, and you have good Size 0's to work with there.

In Magic World, it's harder to build decks that heavily revolve around Omnidai because there's far less good synergies with big beefy Size 3 monsters. But definitely worth mentioning is Bestie! which turns any Omnidai in hand into a +50000/10000 Counterattack spell.

He's definitely the uke

As if they really wanted to push the whole "Let's sit on tanky Size 3's in 72 Pillars" style, Bushiroad also introduced Fallen Demon Lord, Rucifel as an option. Rucifel costs 4 gauge to enter the field but comes with 8000/2/7000 stats and Double Attack. His bonus is that he can change any 72 Pillars in hand into an improved Magical Goodbye (that can also target items). Having practically infinite handtraps is pretty ridiculous. It kinda doesn't work that well since Rucifel is Size 3, but it's still pretty great.

Both Omnidai and Rucifel really want large hand size and good hand engines. They also want good Size 0's to be with on the field. Luckily, both needs are filled with a single card: Follower, Gaap. Gaap is a Size 0 if you have a Size 3 on the field, and you can pay 2 life once per turn to salvage a 72 Pillars from your drop zone.

He fills the holes in the
synergy

But Gaap is just more proof that 72 Pillars is all about the Size 1 game. And the other Size 1's in the set help solidify this fact. First up is DJ of the Graveyard, Bune. Just like Count Dawn, he comes back from the drop zone every turn (except he costs 1 gauge as opposed to 1 life). The other dude, Magic Realm Bouncer, Andless can nullify an attack by killing himself and paying 1 gauge. By properly utilizing both effects alongside stuff like Saturday Night Devil Fever and Devil Advantage you can effectively get by every turn taking close to no damage and still having a full field. It's a bit gauge heavy, but the new Mind of Hardcore helps with that quite a bit.

Last but not least, there's been a bit more support for Solomon-based Size 2 72 Pillars as well. There's a Size 2 with Soulguard that has slightly sad stats but is technically advantage. Magic Realm Seaman, Forneus comes into play and bounces a 72 Pillar back to hand, so you can effectively recycle stuff like Asmodai for free. And finally, Hundred Demon monster Mediator, Botis forces your opponent to ditch cards which often puts them further back than yourself (since you can afford to lose cards). Of course, most opponents will probably just take 2 damage but that means you probably can go for game faster.

I don't even want to think
about what they'd catch

But specifically why is Solomon-based Size 2 Pillars good again? It's because Diabolic Hardcore just got outclassed entirely by a better Impact. Gatling Hardcore costs the exact same 3 gauge, has an easier requirement (a 72 Pillars monster that doesn't have to be in the center) and deals 1 + # of 72 Pillars on your field. This counts both monsters and Set spells, of which we have 2 that have 72 Pillars on them: Noisy Danceroom and Solomon's Great Barrier. If you have all of them out, that's a max of 6 damage...but Noisy Danceroom isn't that great. The only consistently good Set spell is Solomon's Great Barrier. With that out and 3 monsters, Gatling Hardcore deals a nice 5 damage which allows for easy kills.

Asmodai decks, are you ready? Art of Body Duplication! Asmodai is ready to fulfill all your rockin' desires. First and foremost, he is 4 copies of an Asmodai-named card for Eternal Rolling Backdrop to blast damage into your opponent's face. It gets better, of course. Body Duplication Asmodai is actually a replacement for every Asmodai card in your drop zone. So you have actually 8 copies of every Asmodai card which is pretty ridiculous.

Everybody dance now!

The fun doesn't stop, because Asmodai can go on for One More Set! You can use this spell to restand any Asmodai once a turn. Obviously the best target is Omnidai, but even with the regular 2-crit Asmodais this is basically 2 damage. Combined with Rolling Backdrop and you get some pretty ridiculous damage output.

Finally, Make Some Noise is basically Oops! except it can't target Items or spells  but it can bounce two things at once. And it's also 72-Pillars restricted. But I'm sure many people can find really fun and Dandy ways to put it into use. Here's a hint: Set spells help relieve the restriction a bit.

Doesn't have the Death attribute,
what a letdown

There's so much to say about Death Asmodai and just how much of an impact he's made in so many different kinds of decks. The gist of it is that he's utterly insane and can enable so many different combos, particularly in Ancient World where he just goes berserk. In Magic World, he's less useful since most decks tend to be spell-heavy rather than monster-heavy. But he does have great synergy with Solomon's Great Barrier, allowing you to call as many Size 2 monsters as you mill.

More importantly, they basically gave the Asmodai ability except situationally better/worse on a Size 0. Which is also insane.

BAR King Solomon is a really cool tech that allows you to slow down decks that draw forever. But it also has the neat effect of being a Set spell with 72 Pillars attribute. Which is important. Very important.

Demon Dealer, Haagent is a really fun card to build a deck around. Why? Because he basically wants to see as many Saturday Night Devil Fever played as possible. Since he stacks with every copy of himself called via effect, you completely cover the cost of Saturday Night Devil Fever, plus you make 1 gauge and heal 2 life. It's amazing bang-for-buck.

On Fleek! is like, kinda busted? For Omnidai.

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