Armorknight

I think I've always imagined Armorknights to be this big gang of bullies that just ran around crushing people for fun with brute force. You will never, ever win against Armorknights through brute vanilla power because Armorknights sport the highest vanilla stats in the entire game. Period. You could honestly run an entirely vanilla beatdown deck and win based on pure stats.

But Armorknights can do more than just beat other monsters up with superior quality. With a limited but effective roster of spells and some really powerful combos relying on sacrificing your monsters, Armorknights approach a fight like a brawl, fighting tooth and nail to achieve a decisive victory. Get ready to smash your opponent with pure damage.

Gaooo ("Gao" means
"roar" in Japanese)

The star of Danger World is Armorknight Cerberus. He's a solid card with subaverage stats, about a -0.5 in terms of just calling him. He easily makes up for this with one of the most powerful abilities in the game - the ability to transform all your Size 0 and Size 1 Armorknights into Dragonic Destroys. By using Full Fire and moving a Size 0/1 into Cerberus's soul and then into the drop, Cerberus can unconditionally destroy anything. If need be, he can also move units into his soul for his Soulguard, although this is usually not a good idea.

I am of the opinion that every Armorknight deck should run at least 2 of him just for his effect. Size 2 selection is tight, but Cerberus's removal is just too powerful to pass by.

Geo geo

There are a couple of vanilla monsters that I have to mention because they're really good additions to round out any kind of team. Armorknight Griffin sports a great 7000 power and 3-crit for decks that need high-hitters and damage dealers. Armorknight Hellhound has 5000 power and 6000 defense, a great field-clearing monster that can also effectively stall. Armorknight Golem has 5000 power and a spectacular 8000 defense. Following close behind is Armorknight Chimera with 6000 power and 7000 defense, a better mix of offense and defense for most decks. Armornkight Gargoyle hits for an all-important 3-crit while being free to call. Never discount the vanillas in an archetype that can utilize them so well.

Always run 4 Eagles. This is not even debatable. Size 0 with 4000 power means guaranteed field clear most of the time. There's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't run max copies.

I don't have to spend time explaining why dealing 6 damage in a single turn is good, right? Or that free Penetrate is very punishing? Armorknight Demon is simply too strong, and Armorknight Medusa's pressure is unreal. There's no doubt about it, these two form the core of every rush-aggro Armorknight deck.

Stubbornly Strange

Armorknight Succubus is one of those cards that people thought would be good, but ended up being a terrible flop. Firstly, you can't move her soul into Cerberus's soul, that's not allowed. Her only use for her cheap Soulguard is to block an extra attack - but at what cost? Succubus has terrible stats that are compounded by the fact that she has absolutely no defense against Penetrate. That +0.5 is coming around to bite you in the ass. And when called to the side, players will simply ignore her because she poses little to no threat whatsoever. While I won't deny that she has the ability to draw multiple attacks and stall, with Hellhound and Gargoyle available there are clearly better Size 1's to be running.

Because we all care about
the environment

This is hands-down the best card in Danger World. This card is literally any card you want it to be. All your defeated monsters become fair target for Reuse as it necromancers the perfect card for the situation. Need damage? Grab Gargoyle. Penetrate? Grab Medusa. Even in the early game, smart play will allow at least a few targets to enter the drop zone. This card is an irreplaceable staple.

Armorknight Tiger falls in the same boat as Armorknight Eagle. He's a Size 0 that will hit for 2 damage which is downright ridiculous. Remember, Size 0's are almost always guaranteed to be able to do whatever they're meant to do because they have no size restriction whatsoever. In a deck that features an absurd amount of powerful Size 2's, the Size 0 monsters allow you to still have a full field and maximum attacks, even without a weapon. They also serve as great fodder for Cerberus and Demon. You honestly can't go wrong with these.

Column Files
From The Right!

I'll list some notable buffs that Armorknight Formation gives to your monsters. Eagle becomes 5000/1/2000 on a Size 0. Medusa hits 6000/2/5000 with Penetrate. Hellhound becomes 6000/1/7000, regaining its status as a perfect magic number all-around beast. Chimera becomes the dreaded Sieger slayer at 7000/2/8000, and Golem becomes a brick wall at 6000/2/9000. Finally, Demon becomes absolutely unstoppable with a huge 10000/3/9000.

But you actually never want to have more than one Formation out at any given time. Yes, the buffs are really good but Danger World lacks good draw and resource engines which means that you'll likely simply run out of monsters to call if you have two or more Formations out. You want to Set 1 and use the others as charge fodder so that you can actually enjoy your slew of buffed-up baddies.

Wall Lizard used Protect!

Armorknight Wall Lizard is arguably the best Size 2 monster Danger World has and the best starting T1 play of any world, period. I find that properly utilizing Wall Lizard is what separates the good Armorknight players from the average. Wall Lizard brings a decent 3-crit and some subpar stats alongside a call cost, but it's all for the sake of getting that free attack-negate into Phoenix Wall. How does it work? Well, you call Wall Lizard to the center and wait for your opponent to attack it. When he does, you activate his Counter, send him to the drop, and negate the next damage you take by 2. By activating the Counter, you can also bypass any destruction abilities and Penetrate. 1 gauge to reduce 2 damage is a +0.5, and that's not factoring in his nice 3-crit spread.

People like to say that "you can play around Wall Lizard" so "he isn't good" but take a few moments to look at what you'd have to do. The only way you can "weaken" Wall Lizard's effect is to attack with a 1-crit monster after Wall Lizard's Counter - but that doesn't matter since Wall Lizard has still effectively mitigated one attack. You can also choose to attack Wall Lizard last but again, that means that Wall Lizard has once again reduced damage (by the way, never call Wall Lizard with a full field). Lastly, you can remove Wall Lizard using an ability/spell but that's wasting resources on a card that does nothing else but reduce damage pressure, allowing your Medusa's and Cerberus to stay safe from removal. All in all, Wall Lizard lends itself to some pretty good strategies that can really swing tempo and advantage in your favor.

And now we get into EB02. Danger players finally get their hands on some incredible support alongside a new legion for Armorknights. I'm a little disappointed by the spells, since Danger already had incredible monsters, but we'll make do with what we have.

I am Arabian!

Well. Armorknight Bahamut. If you ever get tired of winning by smashing your opponent with Demon's 3-crit Double Attack and happen to have an extra gauge to spare, you could use Bahamut instead and get a 11000/3/11000 Size 3 monster with no Soulguard. Or Double Attack. Heck, this thing has even less crit than Gagnar. He has a good on-call ability of gaining 4 life, but we've got a spell that does that much more easily. I would be fine with this card if it didn't cost a fortune. 3 gauge and 1 monster is a -2.5 in resources for +2 in life and a monster that honestly doesn't do much. Stats above 9000 are relatively pointless as the monster is either going to draw a link attack or get removed via spell/effect.

Bahamut has a place in defensively oriented decks, but Demon does almost everything better at a lower cost. I think it will take a few Full Fires and Thunder Raids, but I expect most players to come to realize that Bahamut is undersupported. I mean, no Soulguard? Double Attack? Not even Penetrate? Really?

Danger just got a lot
more hip

What is this monstrosity. Asmodai, you demon. Armoknight Asmodai has a crazy call cost of -1.5 but comes in and nukes the right and left. Hey, this card immediately destroys all weapon-based setups! As if both Dungeon and Dragon World needed more counters from Danger. When you kill two monsters you get a nice +0.5 from calling, and then you can enjoy Thousand Rapier stats for the rest of the game. Of course, with such a hefty call cost you don't want this to be a 4-of - but man, is it a nice option to have. I would run this card directly replacing Thunder Devastations, since monster attack + 2 removal is better than a field clear spell.

By the way, you can combo Asmodai with this spell to make your opponents cry. Also for the lulz, Asmodai is still 72 Pillars so check out all the stupid things that you can do with that.

Starlight Breaker!

We're getting an archetype for Danger World in the form of the "A" series. I think it was supposed to stand for "Ace", but because they shortened it to "A" I will dub this legion the Nanoha squadron. Magical Beast Lyrical Armorknight Cerberus "A" is what you would assume to be the lynchpin of the squadron, but he's actually not. Cerberus does have good stats that more or less makes his 1 gauge cost a wash. He can then move himself into the weapon's soul at Life Break 5 (less than 5 life) to give the weapon +2 crit. -1 card from field, +2 crit/damage. It's a fair trade, right?

Actually, no. This isn't how math works! Remember, Cerberus "A" was called to the field with a 1 gauge call cost. This call cost is carried over to the movement from field to soul, since by moving Cerberus "A" is changing from a monster into an effect. Thus, the cost is actually -1.5. And you don't just automatically get +2 damage. If you've read my weapons article, you'll know that any weapons-related effect is an investment. You invest a certain amount of resources into a weapon and you regain these resources through attacks. In other words, Cerberus "A" doesn't give you anything until you start attacking and preferably hitting your opponent.

Which ultimately means that moving Cerberus "A" to the soul is a pretty big risk. A single Double Guillotine or Art of Item Blasting will completely screw over this combo and make you waste a ton of banked resources. Any shield will stall out the damage from the weapon until a Dragon Crush or Cecilia's Spell Disarm can be drawn. And don't even get me started on Cerberus "A"'s second ability.

Plasma Lancer!

That isn't to say that Cerberus "A" isn't good in the soul, but you have to be wary of what your opponent may do to counter the ridiculous burst from your weapon. If anything, you want to always have a Fanged Dragon Declaration on hand just in case your opponent surprises you with a Double Guillotine or if you're gunning for game. But the very fact that Cerberus "A" can only be properly used with two other cards (a weapon and a spell) means that he's probably better left on the field.

The same does not go for Armorknight Gargoyle "A". This guy has a magical lyrical effect of nullifying an effect by moving him from the soul to the drop. That's freaking good. With only 4 Battle Aura Circles, Gargoyle "A" acts as a pseudo-nullifier and pushes Danger World into 8 negates. And you can nullify any attack without any restrictions. Being a pseudo-nullifer also has its uses, since you can call him if you need that extra field clear/shield. You definitely want to get this guy into soul and enjoy some amazing negate potential.

Sleipnir!

Armorknight Griffin "A" straddles the line between Cerberus "A" and Gargoyle "A". He's a decent Size 2 with 3-crit and no cost, although his stats are quite lacking. You can move him to the soul to give the weapon Penetrate, but that raises some interesting issues. The first is that you can't give Hysteric Spear Double Penetrate (that would be so sick though). Certainly, Griffin "A" turns any weapon into a Hysteric Spear at the same cost (2 gauge = 1 card) but Griffin "A" is a two-card combo and Danger World draws like crap. So it's not always good to rely on Griffin "A" to get weapons like Swirling Darkness to Penetrate status. Needless to say though, with the new EB02 weapons, Griffin "A" is a hilariously good tech card to get some amazing 3-crit Penetrate weapons into play.

She's like the Reinforce

While she may not be as magical and lyrical as the other "A" monsters, Armorknight Kali serves as a must-have in order to utilize all the "A" squadron effects properly. All "A" effects activate at Life Break 5 (aka the Danger Zone), which means that a Danger player usually has to play from behind in order to win with "A" effects. Kali allows you to move "A" monsters into weapon souls a lot earlier and make your investments sooner so that you can reap the rewards much quicker. It's a sound investment principle, although it does eat your hand up like nothing else. Kali also has stats a bit too much on the weak side, but her effect is relatively strong.

The bottom line is, however, that the "A"'s squadron is pretty underfueled in general. Weapons are investment engines only and need multiple turns to stack and gain advantage. While Demon Slay Barrier can protect your weapons, that's just another spell you need in order to support all the complicated setup you already just did. With absolutely no draw engine, there's no way you can get all the pieces you need consistently. You can run "A"s with a "run hard die fast" OHKO mentality but consistency is what wins card games. Until Danger is be able to consistently draw or find all the pieces of the entire combination, "A"'s will unfortunately not be as magical and lyrical as it has the potential to be.

But still, slamming your opponent with high-crit Penetrate weapons has got to be the best feeling ever.

Attack Force! We need
MORE YUGIOH
REFERENCES

As if we needed any better Size 0 monsters, we get Armorknight Goblin. This card is basically Armor Reuse for Size 1's as a monster. Is that good? That's freaking good. You can basically treat him as 4 copies of a sort of delayed Armor Reuse. Which means that in almost every Armorknights deck you can afford to run 10-12 Size 0 monsters and still get away with it, provided that you make sure the rest of your lineup is superior in quality. Remember, monster ratios don't mean anything if you aren't using certain monsters as actual monsters. Since Goblin behaves more or less like a spell, I wouldn't even count him towards the 24-ish monsters that most decks have. Anyways, good targets for Goblin include Gargoyle "A", Asmodai, and even normal Gargoyle.

You can't activate Goblin's effect if he gets sent to the drop through an ability that doesn't say "destroy", but you can pull some clever plays with Ultimate Buddy!

I hart Armorknights

Armorknight Harty protects from link attacks. I guess that stops some mechanics...but with only 2000 defense, your opponent could very feasibly just remove Harty before link attacking. Also, can't immediately think of any wall outside of Golem that would need link attacks to get over (remember, Harty is Size 1). His only use as of now, ironically, is alongside Demongodol Ark - where Demongodol Ark can taunt and protect Harty and Harty shuts down all link attack shenanigans. It's not foolproof, but it's a pretty decent lock.

Armorknight Lethal Drake is a horrible Size 3 option, even worse than Bahamut. 8000/0/8000 is terribad, and you don't get any other keywords: not Move, not Soulguard, not even Penetrate. You can get a huge ass amount of crit if you get Cerberus Ace into the soul of a 3-crit weapon but come on. You're better off using the Drill Bunker impact, at least that has Penetrate.

Protect your weapon! Also acts as decent Size 1, and makes a complete Ace deck somewhat possible now. We need Size 0 Ace cards though, desperately.

Let the heavens fall

There were four keys to Danger World's return to the top in the newest Extra Booster. The first important key is Armorknight Archangel. If you think this card is broken...it's because it is. First of all - its a free Double Attacker with 2-crit. No call cost, no nothing. If your opponent has an open center, this is practically 4-crit for free. When you call it, you can place as many Armorknight as you want into its soul as a wash transaction...except it isn't a wash, because every soul gives it +3000 power, a +.75 in stats. With a single soul, it's back to correctly statted for Danger World, and any more on top of that is just extra. Even better - call cost is paid before the card hits the field, so you can send 3 Size 1's or lower into the soul for cash value.

It also states Armorknight, so if there's ever an Armorknight Set or weapon you can send that too. Which means it can target Armorknight Formation. Funky.

Fire at will

The second one is Armorknight Iblis. You can basically read the call cost to realize why this is such a hero card for Armorknights. Double Attacker that is a +0.5 on-call for top-soulcharge? What. Cheapest thing ever. The weapon-soul thing is pretty conditional, but Dangerous Cradle makes it a lot easier so it's not out of the question for Iblis to be literally Demon for an entire +2 more and with a soul. And Penetrate. You lose Demon's tanking stats but you save yourself so much gauge and cards that it hardly matters. There's a limit to how ridiculous this support can get but this is about it.

Just in case you were wondering, the third reason is Dangerous Cradle and the last is Shredding Battle Wall.

We're getting Ace versions of pretty much every important Armorknight. Ogre was next on the list, and oh boy, 1-gauge 3-crit Size 1 with 5000 power. That's pretty sweet. In order to put it into the weapon, the 1 gauge call cost needs to be factored in but +5000 power can do you solid sometimes. It doesn't hurt to have Dangerous Cradle at 10000 power, you know. Hits Goldritter right on the nose. This also indirectly buffs spells that work off weapon power like Battle Spirit Unite (+10000 to any stat!) and Demon Slay Slash (Counter-kill anything with 10000 or less power). Those numbers are for Cradle, and Ricdeau is ever higher (11000). You can see this can get pretty out of control pretty fast.

Die now

When Bushiroad looked into H-EB03 and realized they needed to add more Danger support they were like "Alright, is there any card we could create that would push Dangerous Cradle's value and price even higher?" And then they printed Tiger "A". Why in the world would you make a card that gave Dangerous Cradle Double Attack? This one card is the equivalent of taking a bat and smashing your opponent's face into the wall. Dangerous Cradle with Double Attack is just degenerate.

Weapons with no cost are always worth it to look at, at least, since they fit well in decks with tight resources. Weapons that are 5000/2 with no cost are definitely viable, inherently gaining +2000 for absolutely free. So when a card reads 5000/2 on-damage or destroy +1 gauge, there's little reason not to run it. Onikuzushi can't attack the sides but that's not really an issue, especially if you give it Penetrate or something. And the benefits of running the weapon is that you have access to cards that can only be played with Hundred Demon on field in regular Danger World. Cards like Destructive Power Raiga, which abuses the Counter timing and also heals for a whole bunch.

Armorknight Naga basically replaces both Eagle and Double Guillotine in every Danger World deck. Card absolutely destroys the mirror match and makes Hero World so irrelevant.

Deadly cute

So even though Armorknight Cerberus is a great card and still a fantastic tech in current Armorknight decks, Bushiroad decided to just print his effect except better on a Size 0 that also goes into soul. Because Archangel didn't have enough synergies already.

Yeah, I also hate you too Bushiroad.

It's pretty ridiculous that Armorknights is getting support so soon after their last support which is still giving them enough wind in their sails to be competitive. It's hard to think that anything new would be more viable than Iblis and Archangel but we definitely can start evaluating them compared to that high standard.

Lots of attacks

Armorknight Demon "A" is a Size 3 that's vying to take Iblis's spot. It requires 2 gauge to call and also demands a one-monster sacrifice which is rough. However, good defensive stats at 8000/3/7000 makes this more bearable. You can tank on its Double Attack for a while, but Demon "A"'s endgame comes when you get under 5 life. That's when Demon can move himself into your soul as a Counter Act. And once in soul, he has another Counter act that allows you to pay 1 gauge and restand your weapon. Once per turn. This means that you can attack twice with Demon "A", move him to soul, and then attack with your weapon twice. Definitely a great finishing move.

It gets even better, because Armorknight Kali can stuff Demon "A" into the weapon earlier and Demon's restanding ability isn't restricted by life at all, meaning you could potentially go wild in the early game.

God of war

As far as Size 2 options go, Archangel is tough to beat. And frankly, neither Lion Drake nor Asura impress as much as Archangel does. Lion Drake is free Double Attack, sure, but 1 crit is weak and stat-wise Archangel gets there with some soul investment. Asura costs 1 gauge and mills 2 in order to destroy a monster or gain Double Attack, but it's not protected well and milling 2 potentially rushes the deck to deck out too quickly. I would say Asura is the better of the two but I'd probably still take Archangel for free consistent damage and soul.

At level 0, Little Drake opens up a lot of interesting soul-based strategies, converting dead cards in hand into useful soul for creatures/weapons. And soul is very important, especially if we have free cards that do crazy stuff with soul requirements like Armorknight Battleborg. He's a 5000/2/1000 vanilla at worst, but gets Double Attack in not-too-difficult to achieve circumstances which makes him a terrifying late-game topdeck.

The potential is high with Black Drake "A", which can be an 8000/3/5000 Penetrate Double Attack Size 0 for only 1 gauge. You'd need a 3-soul card on the field, which Cradle can grant pretty easily, so Black Drake "A" seems like it'll be a powerful pick at all points of the game.

- 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.