The Gambit of Bismarck (Overview)

Do you like weapons? Do you like badass monsters with beefy stats? Do you like to make bold and daring plays with high-risk and high-reward situations? Welcome to Danger World.

Danger World is truly about full-frontal assaults and just doing everything possible to pile on the offensive, with pretty big monsters to cover its ass after the bloodbath. It is one of the few Worlds to support a Size 0 selection that more or less ensures a full field at all times, even with a Size 3. The monsters in Danger World all sport above average stats and can stand toe-to-toe against the best of all of the worlds. The World is also very big on Penetrate which is basically the blood and soul of Danger World. Though their spell selection is somewhat weak, their advantage engine decays very rapidly, and they lack the appropriate countermeasures to most metagame strategies, Danger World ensures that you'll be going down fighting full throttle.

Danger World is split between the two warring factions of Armorknights and Duel Dragons.

Real funny

Hysteric Spear. This card wins games. Paying 2 gauge is little price to pay when you're given the bloody power of Penetrate. And on a weapon, no less, so that your opponent is hard pressed to get rid of it. 5000 power is very good for a weapon (you actually get this for free, meaning Hysteric Spear is a +0.5), and anytime this baby kills or helps kill a monster in the center, your opponent takes 2 damage. Every. Single. Time.

2 damage is the same as 2 gauge, so basically once this hits once it's already making advantage for you - you cleared a monster with an attack and you dealt 2 damage. And the pain train never ends. It honestly doesn't matter what your opponent plays in the center. Drum Bunker Dragon? 2 damage. Mary Sue? 2 damage. It even deals damage after link attacks, so you can't even wall against this - Link attacks will bring Hysteric to 8000+ power easily that will take down the most dedicated of walls. Oh, and did I mention this bypasses both Green and Blue Shields?

Everything's a probability

To complement the fact that your center will almost always be open, we have a number of good support cards. Invigorating Breath is such a breath of fresh air (/shot). With a weapon attached and your center open, you can heal 4 life. Damn. That's freaking good. You obviously don't want to run more than 3 of these in a deck due to diminishing returns, but this card is definitely a staple.

Survival Chance is such an aptly-named card. When you have 5 life or less, you can pay 1 gauge to draw 2, or +0.5. It's a Nice One! with a life limitation. Eww. You can play the risky game and utilize this card as a much needed advantage engine, but it flies in the face of Invigorating Breath, which will probably rocket your life to ridiculous levels. It's a good sideboard card nonetheless and quite clutch as it is, since hand is never wasted in a Danger World deck (it's by far the most important resource for Danger World). When building Danger World, you choose either Invigorating Breath or Survival Chance and run with it as your main advantage engine.

Nietono no Shana

Crimson Slash is...well, I'm ambivalent to it. -0.5 is not really a big issue and it can get rid of any Size 1 or 2 on the field just like that. It's good, but it's not great. Danger World's stats are so amazing already Size 1s and 2s really aren't an issue normally. And since you want to Penetrate the sorry monster in your opponent's center, you're probably going to Crimson Slash a monster on the side, which isn't always beneficial (you want to Field Block them after all). You can run this if you feel lacking in field control, but usually your monsters are enough. Monsters are more valuable than spells since they grant both field control and field presence (spells only give field control at the most). Please don't run this in tandem with Cerberus, that's just a waste. Earth-shattering Slash can take care of Size 3's but it's overcosted, just like Dragonic Destroy.

Don't run Lord Aura Meditation. Danger World is relatively gauge-friendly and this card will just go to waste. If you find you need this card, then you need to change your playstyle and be more gauge-aware.

Thunder Devastation is a great tech at 1 or 2. The sweep effect gets rid of a lot of monsters, deals with rushing, and swings control of the game back in your favor.

Like-minded people do
like-minded things

Battle Spirit Unite is Danger World's take on the classic counter. You need a weapon, but it has so much more potential than Dragoenergy. With Boulder Piercing Spear the card is meh but Hysteric Spear brings the boost to 5000, which is really impressive. You also get Counterattack afterwards which is awesome, turning this card into a +1 if you can Counterattack. If not, it saves a monster's life which is a wash, so there's no reason not to run this. You can also play it on your own turn to make sure your Penetrater can comfortably go over whatever your opponent has in his center.

I'm the only one who
can have a weapon!

Double Guillotine. Wow. What a card. If you're being attacked by an opponent's weapon, you can pay 1 gauge to destroy that weapon (and halting the attack). Then, as if that relative +0.5 wasn't good enough, you can then RPS (rock-paper-scissors) to deal the critical of your weapon as direct damage to your opponent. So +0.5 50% of the time, +2 50% of the time. The expected gain from this card is +1.75 with a weapon, +0.5 without. This card owns mirror matches and absolutely obliterates weapon-based Dragon World decks. If you're more worried about Set Spells and Magic World weapons, you can opt to exchange these for Exorcist Stomp.

Pierce through th- oh, I already
made that reference before...

Drill Bunker!! is...well, it's definitely not good. An Impact that can be blocked is not very impacting. But it's not really that bad, as some people think it is. It's only 2 gauge, which makes it very cheap and rather spammable. Against Dragon World decks, this Impact is a monster, since they can't guard with their shields if a monster is in the center. You can pop this Impact with Hysteric to get a 9000 power attack and blow through any monster outside of Danger and Ancient Worlds. While dealing 4 damage to your opponent. -1 card, -2 gauge, +1 field advantage, +4 damage. Is that a +1 I see? It's technically not, since you gave up an attack with your weapon in order to use the Impact. So it's ultimately a wash that has situational benefits. If it allowed you to restand your weapon then this would be worth it, but at the moment, it's not ideal in the slightest.

*inserts maniacal
laughter here*

Danger World always had a lack of counter removal spells like Dragonic Thunder and Pillar of Fire, and now they get two. Demon Slay Slash and Demon Break Slash both do very similar things, but the slight variations between the two spells actually makes quite a big difference. Most people think that Demon Slay Slash is the better of the two since you can kill Size 2's as well, but it requires a weapon to cast. Which means that without a weapon, Demon Slay Slash can only destroy...nothing. That honestly sucks. Even with the amazing 6000 power axe, Demon Slay Slash has another stipulation that makes it surprisingly inflexible. You can only cast it during an attack from your opponent's monster. In other words, if your opponent doesn't attack with a monster, but with a weapon, you can't field clear. It's not really that restrictive but you'd be surprised the situations where that one little word changes everything.

Because of that, Demon Break Slash is actually more flexible. A restricted Dragonic Thunder is better than not being able to kill anything at all. Although if you run 8 weapons, chances are you're going to be able to use Demon Slay Slash pretty effectively. But the weapon spread would have to be 4 Ricdeaus 4 Hysteric Spears to maximize power, which means that you wouldn't be running the very powerful Swirling Darkness or using much Griffin "A", which ultimately lends this kind of deck to a weird hybrid build that is neither "A" squadron nor critrush.

Why am I holding a
shield...

Drill Bunker left most Danger World players feeling rather salty. But instead of giving Danger World a better Impact (because seriously, Ultimate Battle Skill, MEGA Demon Slay is not an improvement), they give Danger a way for Drill Bunker to actually work. Fanged Dragon Declaration may be more expensive than Abra Cadabra! and Demon Way, Sakurafubuki, but a spell negate in Danger World is ridiculously broken. You can stack any number of crits on a single weapon, drive it home with Drill Bunker, and solidify the attack with Fanged Dragon Declaration. This makes one-turn bursts all the more powerful. Fanged Dragon Declaration is always great to have on-hand to seal a win.

Bad-axe weapon

What a weapon. Explosive Axe, Ricdeau Demon Slay is 1 gauge for 6000/3. That's incredible, an incredible +0.5 with a perfect power level. You can't call any monsters to the center - umm, obviously, you want your center open to attack. Basically this card makes you feel great about winning and swinging a weapon around.

Forget Invigorating Breath; say hello to Demon Slay Resurrection. Who cares about the life restriction or the gauge cost, it's much more flexible than needing both a weapon and an open center (not to mention getting screwed by accidental copies in the drop). And if you're going to run any kind of gauge converter, run Bold Retaliation and wait for those 3-crit attacks. After all, if you're going to increase your gauge, it's good to get used to casting it as a counter (to a spell) to avoid any possible retaliation.

Stop!

Most weapons-based decks are quite volatile since you can't protect your weapon investments. Not Danger World. I almost missed it, but a friendly reader (thanks bro!) pointed out that Demon Slay Barrier can not only protect an important monster on the side, but also a weapon you have. That's incredible. It's a really useful 1-for-1 protection spell.

Actually, instead of Bold Retaliation I think it's more prudent to run Dimensional Demon Slay Slash. Technically, your gauge is worth the same as their gauge as Bandit Ninja, Goemon has demonstrated. Danger is still relatively gauge-friendly even with all the newer cards (since the weapons have gotten cheaper) so there shouldn't be an issue to just slowly gaining gauge while whittling away at your opponent's, especially in more defensive builds.

Let's begin our
armageddon

And then we have the most amazing set spell in the entire Danger World lineup: Final Battle Skill, MAJI Demon Slay. Seriously? This thing completely wrecks face by forcing your opponent to play under the very same stipulations as your own Ricdeau Demon Slay: no monsters in the center. Well, they can still call those Size 3's only to be Penetrated to death by all the Penetrate in this world. This spell gives Asmodai a near 100% hit rate and still allows you to call Rahal to the right and Move him to the center the very next turn. This spell instantly tilts Magic matchups in your favor and forces most decks to eat all the damage that Danger can pump out. This spell makes you a complete badass.

What's the absolute best weapon in all of Danger World? All of them are pretty good, and you'd do well to run a mix of BattleAx, Hysteric Spears, Swirling Darkness and whatnot. But when it comes down to it, Infinite Armament, Dangerous Cradle walks away with a landslide victory. This card is insane. 5000/1 for free is already pretty good, but pay 1 gauge and you can add any Weapon from your drop zone into your hand (read as: that weapon you just charged). Dangerous Cradle gets +crit of every weapon in its soul. Yeah. Every weapon. Not +1 for each weapon. +that_weapon_crit. So if you pay 1 gauge and grab Ricdeau, you just got +3 crit.

Ookami Rosary

Winner.

As if that wasn't enough, if Dangerous Cradle has three or more soul, it gains Penetrate. It says soul, so every freaking Ace card counts towards this. Basically, you can get Dangerous Cradle to something ridiculous like 10-crit Penetrate without very much investment. Dangerous Cradle also incentivizes using select Ace cards like Gargoyle and Eagle without going full out into the Ace build because Griffin and Cerberus are more or less redundant and a waste. 

You might as well grab a playset now because it's hard to see this card going anywhere. The only real "downside" is that paying 1 gauge to stuff extra copies of Cradle into the soul is only 1 gauge for 1 crit. Man, only a wash. How disappointing.

I stop you with my roar

The only other weapon is a not-that relevant 6000/1 spear, so let's move on to spells. Battle Dragon Slaying Crush is a notable spell for being one of the more cheaper "destroy-anything" spells, especially since you dock 1 gauge and 2 life. That's the preferred method of cost payment, plus you can hit yourself down to the Danger Zone of Life Break 5 for Survival Chance and Ace effects. I wouldn't main deck this, but it's a worthy option in certain matchups. Generally speaking though, Danger World fares better when they're protecting their own stuff rather than going for crushing their opponent's stuff.

Shredding Battle Wall is great, but try to resist the temptation of taking out your Battle Aura Circles for these. You don't start the game with a weapon, and even if you run 8-10 there's no guarantee you'll pull it. I've had all 8 Climaxes stacked at the bottom of the deck so it happens, believe me. Battle Aura Circle is still the go-to choice for overall consistency - that 1 life difference doesn't mean much when you can block that 3-crit swing when it matters.

Field wipe! Infinite Demon Slay Slash is a pretty great 1-of for those clutch purposes.

Pfft the flavor text

The problem with Training of Skill and Life is that if you're not careful, you can hit yourself just out of the Danger Zone by using it too early or something. It's better than Lord Aura Meditation but be careful when using it.

I've always wondered if there was a consistent way to get Cradle and like weapons set up. Ace cards, while good in the weapon's soul, have that really annoying Life Break 5 condition so we need more than just Kali to bypass it. Also we want more weapons in drop for Cradle to grab. I don't know, maybe a card that can mill some stuff and then charge it with a soul?

Oh.

A moment of silence for
shirtless Rouga

I like drawing two cards for literal cheap. I also like Death Grip. I'm soooo glad that this already broken world managed to get both of these cards in Buddy Allstars!

And then I see Demon Wind Slash, this outrageous weapon that's 4000/3 for 1 gauge and also kills Size 1's on attack for free. To be fair, you can't call stuff to your center and the discard is kinda limited because you can't target your opponent and kill a closed center while you're at it. But I digress because free advantage is free.

Bushi should pay me to balance things for them because they obviously can't. Not sure why they're printing cards that are strictly better than cards they've printed before but whaaatever.

So much angst

It's time to look at important Demon Slay support! The reason this overlooked trait is now relevant is all thanks to this new amazing spell Demon Slay Come Forth. It gives you a gauge and then allows you to grab a Demon Slay from the top 3 cards of your deck, the rest going to the drop zone. So not only do you get a gauge, but the card also replaces itself and fuels the drop zone. Basically it does everything you want. You'll want most of your weapons to be Demon Slay so you can use this to grab it, as well as spells like Demon Slay Barrier, Demon Slay Slash, and more. There's also a Chillax-clone in the set that's also Demon Slay traited, which is important.

You can also grab Impacts, which is huge because True Ultimate Battle Skill, GIGA Demon Slay is a very useful finisher. For 3 gauge you can restand your weapon and give it an extra attack AND another attack phase. This makes for really interesting plays where you can attack with your weapon, go to Final Phase, cast the Impact, and then resume attacking (in case you wanted to attack with your weapon again before your monsters). If you have a 3-crit weapon, this is effectively a 4 damage Impact with some restrictions.

ALL THE SOUL

Dangerous REIZI is an important card for most Danger World decks now. Duel Dragons use it to give lots of soul to their beefy monsters, whereas Armorknights can use it to buff either their monsters or their weapons (though you have to be pretty lucky to hit a useful buff for the weapons). Either way, it's technically advantage since you're trading 1 soul for 1 card.

Armorknight Dragon, "Earthshaker" is pretty weird. If you have both Armorknight and Duel Dragon on the field it's a very valuable Double Attacking Penetrate monster for 1 gauge. But getting there is a bit of an issue, especially if you only do it with monsters (you need another Size 1 and Size 0). Luckily...you can use specific Set spells to fulfill the requirements too. Specifically Duel Law and Armorknight Formation. Which makes for a really weird and funky hybrid deck, but hey. It's the costs you pay to make certain cards work.

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

All images were 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.