Black Dragon

Who would've thought that Bushiroad would make an entire species of dragons an archetype? So far, from Red to Green to Gold to Blue, Bushiroad has been rather random with how they assign colors to dragons. I mean, Thunder Knights are as multi-colored as a rainbow. But the fact that they managed to settle down for some consistency is a nice change of pace. I mean, there's no Black Dragons in Dragon World, after all.

...wait a minute...Steel Gauntlet Dragon is a Black Dragon? Wait, so is Gust Charging Dragon? Wait, there's more?...did I discover something I wasn't supposed to?

Moooving back on topic, Black Dragons (save their Dragon World counterparts) are blessed with insane power and Spectral Strike, which is basically a semi-improved version of Penetrate. On the other hand, they have some terrible defense, but this doesn't matter if you play it right. There are other hidden weaknesses, but Black Dragons are overall very aggressive and have the right tools to really leverage their strengths.

Let's start this off by demystifying Spectral Strike. The truth is, Spectral Strike is not an outright improvement over Penetrate. In fact, there are often times when Penetrate is better. Let me explain. For Spectral Strike, the damage dealt by the effect does not have to correlate with crit damage. In other words, Spectral Strike is a bonus given to a monster-directed attack and is not applicable to a monster's inherent worth. This ends up making Spectral Strike monsters a lot less flexible and means that they are much easily outmaneuvered.

My nose is my jaw

For example, Deathgaze Dragon. He's also a Death monster, but fits better with Black Dragons in terms of Spectral Strike. Most people think he's really good, but that's actually not the case. Why? Because math! Look at his base stats. We'd expect 5000/1/4000 from most 1-crit Size 1's in DDW, but Deathgaze has 6000/1/1000. That's already a -0.5 in terms of stat allocations. Then his on-call becomes another -0.5 in terms of gauge. Deathgaze comes on as a -1, and his Spectral Strike is only (ha, only) 2 damage. This isn't direct damage, since it's tied directly to an attack - if you stop the attack, you stop the damage. In other words, Deathgaze is a -1 and until he kills a monster, he won't even turn out as a wash. If he direct attacks, he's only doing 1 damage. He has to a kill a monster to be even worth it. That's very inflexible and can come around to bite you.

But isn't destroying monsters the way you win games? Well, yeah, but more important than that are the options you have. Sometimes, you don't have the option to attack a monster. Sometimes, you don't want to. You have power vs. defense to consider. Deathgaze is only 6000 power, and there are cards that can beat that. Hell, even your spells work against you. Are you going to Death Grip that monster that was going to hit you for 3 crit? Because if you do, that's a target that Spectral Strike can't take advantage of. Don't forget, it's a lot easier to protect a monster (Dragoenergy, similar Counter Spells) than a person. If you just want to deal damage consistently, crit is much more stable. For that reason, the option to direct attack for equal advantage is very nice to have. And Deathgaze doesn't have this option.

He's very similar to Awl Pike Dragon, a 4000/2/1000 Dragon World Size 1 with Penetrate and a call cost of 1 gauge. They both do the same damage if they activate their respective effects. You'd think Awl Pike is worse because less power, but wait. Awl Pike has 2 crit. It doesn't matter if Awl Pike Penetrates or not, he's still doing 2 damage. Awl Pike will never have a suboptimal play. He'll always be guaranteeing the damage he was designed for, making him subjectively better than Deathgaze in aggressive decks. In the end, they are still really similar, though, and I wouldn't recommend either. The gauge investment in these monsters are a bit unsure and not secure and consistent. Size 1's, while flexible, are harder to protect. Pouring resources into them is usually a bad call, especially if they don't pay out in some guaranteed fashion.

Death is pretty cold

Instead, I think Cold Blade is the real hero of Black Dragons. I don't care so much about costed Spectral Strike 2, but uncosted Spectral Strike 1 is something else. Especially on a 5000/1/1000 body. This card is simply a better version of Tuck Sword Dragon, and I will sing the praises of that card all day long. You might think 1 is nothing, but don't underestimate that little +0.5 advantage. Remember, if Cold Blade kills something he's inherently giving +1.5 from that attack. And you're not investing anything into Cold Blade, so even if he's blocked it's a-okay. Unlike Deathgaze, where if you block that card then that gauge investment is just sitting pretty to be completely wasted. I mean, Cold Blade and Deathgaze both gain a net +1.5 if they kill anything, and neither are projected to live for an extra turn. They net you the same exact advantage! Why would you choose Deathgaze when you have Cold Blade? Cold Blade is simply better.

Sure, I guess Deathgaze works well with Dark Energy and Devil Stigma but then we get into the entire issue of "now we need cards to guarantee our combo" which I've gone to great lengths explaining why DDW just doesn't work like that in the overview article. And this issue is exacerbated when we run Deathgaze en masse in a deck. So I guess what I'm trying to get at is that Deathgaze is a terrible card to run at max copies. You'll hate him in your opening hand, he needs support to make him go off and he dies a terrible death if mistimed and blocked. Basically, he's the epitome of everything wrong with DDW, but he also shows off some of DDW's strong points (he's a Size 1!). If you want to play Deathgaze, run him at 2, maybe 3. No more.

I've met several players who swear by 4 Awl Pike Dragon, though. I strongly disagree. This is a very Vanguard perspective that honestly doesn't work in Buddyfight. I consider investments like Awl Pike and Deathgaze similar to crit-stacking, putting all your eggs in one basket. If it scores, you win big, but if it fails you end up suffering equally as much. Despite, you know, gaining advantage in the same incremental terms. In Vanguard, this had a rather higher percentage of success thanks to a 4 Perfect Guard limit in every deck. But Buddyfight decks have way more than 4 negates in every world. I mean, Dragon World easily has 12 in their arsenal (looking ahead). So you gather all that damage onto one body, swing and get hit by a shield. Now you're really going to eat it. Crit stacking, as unviable as it was in Vanguard already, is simply not something you should do in Buddyfight. Please get this Vanguard cancer away from a game that obviously has taken strides to be much more complex, interesting, and intelligent.

I'm here to take your...
what the hell is a mavel?

So yeah, like I've explained in DDW's overview, this world requires a lot of setup and progression before becoming a force to be reckoned with. In that regard, DDW can take a page out of Ancient World's book and use similar strategies. We're talking about running max copies of Black Dragon, Maveltaker, and treating this dude as your Duel Sieger. You do have Dark Energy in this world, so make the most of it. Maveltaker is your only Double Attacker, and he packs Spectral Strike on top of that. And, thank God, he has 2 crit. So if he kills a unit, that's +1.5, and if he attacks directly, that's still +1. His stats are beautiful as well, 8000 defense in DDW is a rare treasure. As long as he kills 1 monster on the turn he's played, he'd be a wash (-2.5, +2.5). So overall, Maveltaker is a great way to start up a game and help build up those resources.

Besides that, there's really not much going for Black Dragons in terms of monster selection. With 4 Maveltaker, you want to be looking at around 8 Size 2's and 12 Size 1's. You have to run Death Wizard Dragon. For other Size 2's, let's not forget to add 3 crit monsters for damage pressure. For Size 1's, you can use Death Gracia and your typical 5000/2/1000 vanilla instead of max Deathgaze (keep him at 2). It seems really boring but trust me, consistency is much better than hanging yourself out on a limb. 

Blood Moon

Oh, whoops, I was wrong, there is more to talk about. Here's an interesting comparison. Black Dragon, El Huracan versus Bloody Moon Dragon. Which is better? If you've been paying attention, you'll probably be able to guess. El Huracan has 1 crit and Spectral Strike 2. Bloody Moon has 2 crit and Spectral Strike 1. El Huracan can either +0.5 with a direct attack or +2 with a monster kill, and Bloody Moon can either +1 with direct attack or +1.5 with a monster kill. Mathematically they are equal, but I would go with Bloody Moon for consistency's sake. Remember, consistency wins in card games, not power (power is good too). Adding to the fact that DDW is a pretty aggressive deck, you really want to be able to deal good damage regardless of the circumstance. This is another reason why Deathgaze isn't ideal. Generally speaking, if you have the option between 1 crit/Spectral Strike 2 and 2 crit/Spectral Strike 1, the latter wins out.

Proof of insanity or
utter stupidity

Last but not least, Black Dragons have a special spell card as support. It made me laugh. Lunatic is...wow. I don't even know how to describe this. Pay 1 gauge and cast the card (-1.5) to make your opponent lose 1 gauge. *Slow claps* Oh wait, if you have 2 or more Black Dragons, then your opponent can discard a card. Let me rephrase that. If you have 2 or more Black Dragons, then you can wash with this card. How bad is that? And 2 monsters? That's a seriously heavy restriction. Oh, and get this. If you play this card when your opponent has 1 gauge and they use some 1 gauge-costed destruction counter and destroy a monster, bringing you below 2 Black Dragons on the field, then this card does absolutely nothing. The fact that this card has the very likely potential to do absolutely nothing and the best-case scenario of a wash means that this card is by far the worst spell I have ever seen. Truly, as its name suggests, only a lunatic would be playing this.

Pfft. Maveltaker is better.

Chilling just how bad it is

People were hyping this card up a lot, and now that it's out, I have to crush everybody's dreams once again. Let me start positively: this card is better than Deathgaze. That's a truth fact, since it's free and actually has better than 2000 defense so it doesn't get immediately blown up by every kind of counter removal in existence. Not only that, but 3000 power is acceptable for clearing the riffraff your opponent will summon and Spectral Strike 2 hurts a lot. Alright, now that that's out of the way, I must say that this card is definitely not a staple. Not a 4-of, you hear? You can run it at about 2 to get the maximum potential of the card, but running it at max copies is dangerous for the fact that your opponent can just ignore this card in a lot of instances. It's a Size 1 that gets hit by removal easily, 3000 power can't hit everything and link attacks can be easily blocked in lots of archetypes. The fact that it can't threaten the center column ever means that it will inevitably be a dead card. Keep things in perspective, please. This is a Systemic Scissor Dragon that can only attack monsters. There's no way you want max copies of that in your deck.

Is anyone there?

Weeping Black Steel, Ballamudal is another option for Size 3. I could easily once again stay "Pfft. Maveltaker is better" but this card warrants some discussion. No Soulguard on a 3-gauge Size 3 is pretty dangerous, but Penetrate evens things out and it deals 1 direct damage on-attack. The overall potential of this card isn't too bad. Though, in the end, Maveltaker is better. It's just a fact.

As if Spinechiller was bad, check a load of this guy. Grobius is even worse than Spinechiller because not only is he a Size 2 that takes up more space on your field and is relatively less flexible, but he also has a 5-in-drop requirement that forces him to come out later. Not actually too detrimental but its an unnecessary restriction. 7000 power is better than what I would expect but that 0 crit just hurts to look at. If you don't believe my thesis about the 0 crit monster then just see for yourself. There's no way you can do well running large amounts of a card that essentially cannot guarantee any damage. Even as a tech, there are much better options for Size 2's.

Zanzara is pretty amazing. You think that his effect is kinda meh but that card can target the soul of any card. Not just monsters. We're talking weapons (against Danger), set spells (against Dungeon), and even Impacts (against Katana). We're talking about a card that can negate Secret Sword casually on-call. The card definitely has some uses in critical matchups.

Stop staring at me!!

The last support for Black Dragons is in the form of a set spell. Crisis Field actually supports Spectral Strike but since that's basically all Black Dragons I think its fitting that it supports Black Dragons. Giving all Spectral Strike monsters +2000 power is actually super super scary. I mean, Deathgaze at 8000 power is kinda ridiculous. And Spinechiller actually hits a meaningful 5000 power making it slightly better than unusable trash (of course, if you're using this card as justification for Spinechiller you've just tried to justify a two-card combo that costs 1 gauge and might deal 2 damage). The most interesting part about Crisis Field is that it stacks - meaning that you could possibly get two and a +4000 power buff. It's obvious that pretty soon the power becomes meaningless, as a 14000 power Deathgaze is no more useful than a 10000 power one. But having at least one or two of these can be pretty beneficial for Spectral Strike users. It doesn't, however, change the fact that Spectral Strike is a middling ability and that Black Dragons are slated to be the weakest archetype in Darkness Dragon World.

Gray...bard?

Hey look! Really cool Size 3 monster! Graveyard of Demonic Swords, Graybard. Damn, what an awesome name. Damn, what an awesome card art. Damn, what an awesome ability. On-play nuke anything you see, then deal X damage to your opponent, X being the Size of the nuked monster. It doesn't even matter if the monster somehow survives using Soulguard or something that revives the monster (though "prevent destruction" effects will stop the damage), you'll deal the damage as long as you kill something. It also has decent stats for Black Dragons (especially considering most things have paper defense). A nice addition and replacement for Maveltaker.

Also more inefficient Spectral Strikers. Whatever.

Wao so violent

Violence Familiar! is pretty funky. It's bad, yeah, but it's cute while trying to be good. By increasing the damage that Spectral Strike deals, the Impact is basically increasing the "crit" of every Spectral Strike user on field by 1 when killing a monster. It's actually the exact same card as Judgement Day that Death uses, except as a Counter Impact you can cast it anytime you want, even on your opponent's turn (I don't know why...). Problems arise when you don't have either a full field of Spectral Strikers or, more than likely, your opponent doesn't have enough monsters to kill. Remember that Judgement Day is only a wash when you get the +1 damage on three monsters, so Violence Familiar ends up being pretty minusy and unplayable.

Besides the fact that this card just destroys anything it attacks, Black Dragon, Befreien also has the Destruction attribute. Funky.

Tiny but evil

Deathgaze Dragon SD not only deals Spectral Strike 1 and has 6000 power for a costless Size 1 (much better then the original Deathgaze for sure) but you also get to screw with your opponent's gauge. Fun games.

So Bushiroad said "Hey, this Spectral Strike mechanic is like not actually that strong and Violence Familiar didn't make people want to use it more. What can we possibly do to make people want to build SS decks?" And then they thought that printing yet another card would make it worthwhile. So I guess if you cast Violence Familiar and Absolute Attack and somehow your opponent is so braindead that he or she doesn't dump counters at the beginning of the Battle Phase, you can maybe get like free damage from that.

Yeah, sometimes I wonder about their intelligence too. The card designers, I mean.

Don't shoot the messenger

And now we're at Hundred Booster #4, the one that Bushiroad gets Black Dragons right. Kind of. The super-degenerate stuff is almost here, but we get some good previews. To start, Messenger of Despair, Metamaria offers a really strong-performing Size 3 monster. If you told me that Graybard might have competition I would've laughed but Metamaria does show up. 9000/2 with Double Attack is great, 3 gauge call cost for 2 free soul is great, and every time Metamaria dies you can ping 1? It's almost perfect.

Main problem is that the 1-damage shots can be easily countered completely with that stupid new Fifth Omni Fist weapon (and Dragokeeper). But otherwise Metamaria does basically everything Graybard wants to do except more, all for the tiny cost of 1 extra gauge. More consistent damage, more survivability, more synergy with Dark Energy and Devil Stigma.

And next we'll have
Black Dragon OG

Jinxed Landfill is a trap, don't buy it, nope. You don't make Deathgaze Dragon better by making it more situational, you make it better by making it free. Like Deathgaze SD.

Holy crap is this Impact hot garbage. Black Dragons have some of the worst crit in the game. Pretty not interested in paying 4 gauge to deal like, what, 3 damage? And losing my entire field?

Black Dragon G. Wow, that name. So original. It's cool though since you can Counter call it after you attack with your weapon to get an extra attack, or you can do it on your opponents turn for the normal shenanigans. Oh, and then you can kill it off to restand Execute Sword, Tragedy to...ah I see how this is playing out. I'll see you in the Purgatory Knights section.

Negul...balz...is that a joke?

Void Omni Wicked Lord? What? This definitely wasn't mentioned in the anime. Oh well, Negulbalz is pretty broken so I guess I'm glad this didn't get more attention. Something about Graybard's effect on a monster continuously sounds pretty heinous, especially considering that DDW has the best tools to deal with Size 3 tanks (Death Damage says hi). You want to combo Negulbalz with lots of removal spells like Death Trap and then go for a full clear, probably leaving your opponent dead or very near death.

I'm also very intrigued by Servant of the Wicked Lord, Nightmare. He salvages a Destruction card, which seems interesting considering that a lot of Black Dragon's traits are Black Dragon/Death. The rationale here is that by tagging Destruction instead of Black Dragon, Nightmare can salvage those key Destruction spells that synergizes so well with Negulbalz.

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