Wizard

If I had a good Harry Potter quote, I'd use it right now.

Wizards fit a very control-based playstyle. With regards to power and critical, their monsters are severely lacking. However, they make it up with superior spells and effects to gain tons of advantage and grind an opponent to death. They can lean on the very potent spell lineup of Magic World to gain control and punish burn. There's even Wizard-exclusive spells and effects that gain even more advantage to the point of buying extra turns. When their monsters are concerned, they pack enough punch to make it count and offer a wide range of great utility abilities. So great that you can effectively force your opponent to play your own game. It feels like you're playing for both players sometimes.

Expelliarmus!

When talking about a good Wizard deck, the main points to focus on are usually: burn, disrupt, and burst. Burning involves dealing damage in small increments, slowing chipping away at life or other resources. Disruption is the aspect of delaying or altering your opponent's plans and keeping the entire game under your control. Burst is that one-turn (or two-turn) gambit where you simply screw everything else and gun for your opponent. Since Wizards can do all three very well in a single deck, it's important to identify which cards fall under which categories and build accordingly. Don't be surprised to find yourself running vanillas or cards that seem just strange to have because that's often what it takes to make a Wizard deck magical.

I like plants

Herb Magician, Soichiro Tenjiku. This card is quite an interesting case. First of all, it is completely outclassed by its upgrade in Set 3 which has 2-crit and equivalent power at the cost of 3000 defense. Why does defense not matter? Because chances are it's not going to live if your opponent prioritizes it. Nobody is going to willingly let these scientists stay if a Wizard player has a lot of cards in their hand. Free Nice One!s and 1 gauge Oops! can get pretty ridiculous. Not to mention you can just heal for free with Chillax!

But when we get down to it, these guys are actually kind of anti-synergistic with proper Wizard play. Wizards aim to charge a lot and pay a lot, getting Wizards into the drop pretty much as soon as possible. Not being able to pay gauge for spells is actually kinda detrimental, as ironic as it sounds. Sure, it makes stuff like Begone!! and Oops!! a lot more usable. But that's only if you really want to go down that path. It definitely diverges from the standard build of Wizards and offers a new type of play focused on spells as control. It also eats into your Size 2 lineup.

I like glass

As far as staples go, Magician of Glass, Will Glassart is about as staple as it gets. Size 1 2-crit monster with a seriously stupid on-hit effect that trades 1 gauge for an extra draw. It's important to note that he is one of the few Size 1 Wizards that actually has a crit greater than 1 and the only one with free call and a decent ability. Although with gauge being your most controlled resource, whether or not you activate the ability is up to the situation. Either way, the on-hit is added pressure for your opponent and forces them to predict your plans (draw or not?) and attempt to intercept them (block or not?), at which point you simply just choose a different route altogether.

I block you with cards

Barriermaster, Shadowflash is a pretty awesome card. You can call him to the side and use him as a damage missile for a turn. Then, when your opponent attacks your center, you can use him to negate that attack. It's as if he took the attack himself. He controls your opponent's attacks and forces your opponent to waste attacks on something they wouldn't have targeted in the first place. And it even bypasses Penetrate and Spectral Strike, so you don't have to ever worry about Shadowflash being a liability. People underrate this card without realizing that it's one of the most guaranteed +1's in the game.

HEEEHEEEHEEE

Set 2 gives us one of the best cards available to any world and archetype. Mary Sue might look like a freaky stained glass girl, but she's super ridiculous because she can tutor any spell in your deck. Any. Freaking. Spell. How is this allowed? Spells are the lifeblood of Magic World and being able to find one out to fit your situation is so good. The only real issue is that gauge is kinda expensive and you're probably not going to be able to search and cast back to back. But guess what? You can search for something like Kosher and ultimately win off the situation. There's almost no wrong play with this card. So great. Along with Barriermaster, she's definitely top-class for your Size 2 options.

My grandfather's clock was
 too large for the shelf...

In the end, I really simply cannot fathom a Wizard deck not built around utterly destroying your opponent by sicking your grandfather on him. Or more specifically, your grandfather's clock. Yeah, we all know you get another turn, and its measly 2 gauge cost makes it pretty ridiculous. Six different Wizards in the drop zone? Oh, you mean like Turn 4? What kind of stupid restriction is that? This card is just outrageous. 1 card and 2 gauge for a extra turn? An extra turn, just from charge and draw, will net you 1 card and 1 gauge back anyways. You lose practically nothing from this card. Truly a broken spell. Of course, you really don't want to be running too many of this card, which is why Mary Sue is essential for searching this card out when you need it.

Quick note: after creating a decklist, chances are you'll notice that you only really have 6-8 unique Wizard cards in it. You might be slightly worried about reaching Grandfather Clock's requirement. Not to worry - as long as the cards are run at relatively high numbers (3-4), they'll find their way into the drop zone very easily, especially with the wild charging and paying in this deck. If you're really worried, you can always mix up the lineup by adding in options or splitting ratios between functionally similar cards (two different 2-crit vanillas, for instance). Don't forget Grandfather Clock is a Wizard too!

Simply devastating

Wizards get their first Size 3. I normally would've spent more time on this card but there's a much, much better card down the line. Hearty's main issue is that she costs a ton (3 gauge), can only protect herself from link attacks (lame), only has 6K power and defense (PoFable and easy to wipe even with Size 1's), and can only pop one monster per turn. Additionally, there's not even a Size 0 (yet) that we can use. There's not much benefit for using Hearty so you might as well pass.

Kosher is great. Free gauge free draws banzai.

The Impact is okay-ish, but you're better off running Power Ray Maximum.

He's the one that messes
it up

So I've covered the Dunkelheit-Licht combo in another article before about Magic Numbers, but now I'll say my real opinions on these two cards as they fit into Wizard decks now. Truthfully? They actually kinda suck. No, really. Think about it. Not only do they take up a ridiculous amount of deck space to be effective (8 cards), they also don't actually do that much even with +3000/3000 to their stats. They have to have each other in order to do anything; you can't have two Licht and get the bonuses, it has to be Dunkelheit-Licht. They're still only 1-crit monsters, their stats were already underweighted slightly to begin with, and the worst part is that Dunkelheit still only reaches 6000 defense with the bonus. Read as: PoF and the entire combo disintegrates into thin air. Really, you can do much better.

Magic can be badass

Much better with Black Demon Swordsman, Jace Aldis. For the cost of 1 life, you can get a 5000/1/5000 monster, which is a really good deal in Magic World where stats are usually really low. Jace Aldis gets even better by paying 1 gauge to buff his power to 8000, guaranteeing kills on practically every relevant threat in the metagame. By himself, he's a lot more flexible than Dunkelheit-Licht and works almost just as well with half the cards. As for the other Size 1's, you should really run some 2-crit monsters for damage rushing. Like Dragowizard Medium.

DRUUUUUMMM<3~!!!

Or Dragowizard, Qinus Axia. This card is hilarious. You get your nice 2-crit Size 1 monster and the most guaranteed damage in the entire game. 1 gauge for 1 damage is such good trading. Thanks to Magic World gimmicks, you can keep bouncing Axia using a variety of options to protect yourself and continue pinging for damage. Along with the gunrods, you can effectively get in several extra direct attacks every turn.

Lol what is this crap.

GTFO AXIA</3

Oh, it's for this card. Dragowizard, Magician Drum. Eww. Let me just put the other card in the combo here, Gotcha! So the whole combo is to have Life Break 5 and at least 2 gauge. Use Mana Booster to get your gauge to 3, call Magician Drum and use Gotcha! to steal all your opponent's gauge for Megablast Bunker~!! It's a good payoff, destroying a monster and dealing 4 damage regardless (+1 from destruction, +3 from direct damage). This also turns Gotcha! into a wash if your opponent has 4 or more gauge while applying some wacky disruption. But to get it to work is just ridiculously stupid. The combo itself is such a stretch, and Mana Booster has no other reasonable uses besides this specific combo. And you need to have less than 5 life. Gotcha! isn't even a Wizard spell, so it doesn't help with anything else you might be planning (like Grandfather Clock). Please don't use this combo.

Better Ragnarok. All I'm saying. This into Grandfather Clock is so guaranteed win.

The tempest is at your
command

The better Size 3 for Magic World is Dragowizard, Tempest Wing. This card is pretty stupid. He's cheaper than Hearty and has 1000 extra power, allowing him to fight at the 7K level and threaten Sieger. Not only that, his ability can be activated multiple times per round, allowing you to field clear with any Wizard in your hand (read: practically anything). Sure, it might give your opponent 1 free gauge (-0.5 net from your perspective) but that monster was worth much more for your opponent. It gets wilder. Since you're sending it from field to gauge, it bypasses destruction effects like Nazaro Hot Springs and Duel Sieger. Also, against enemies with Soulguard, it trades fairly 1 for 1 if your opponent activates Soulguard and works in your favor. This card gives Wizards a guaranteed win against Ancient World decks and heavily swings Danger and Dungeon matchups in your favor. I don't know what's not to love about this card.

Oh DearS...

Wizards get some really good support with BT05 that brings them back into the spotlight. They get a new Size 3 that isn't really a Size 3. Or rather, you can choose when it's a Size 3. Artificial Angel, Virginie Casta is a typical Size 3 with good stats and Double Attack for 2 gauge. However, it has a rather low 1-crit which is a bit of a letdown, and 6000 defense isn't helping its case. However, if you have a Size 2 on the field, Virginie Casta becomes 3 Sizes lower - or a Size 0. Suddenly, you can have Virginie Casta alongside a full field which makes it pretty amazing. It's great for clearing the field and your other monsters can be in charge of dealing damage. If you're worried about getting hit by counter removal, you can always just not call any Size 2 and leave it as a Size 3.

Art is love and life

Virginie Casta's 2 gauge call cost is a bit on the high side, and really makes using Mary Sue, Qinus Axia, and other costly Wizards difficult. Luckily, BT05 introduces one of the best Size 1 Wizards in the game, right up there with Glassart and Axia. Magic Artist, Andy reduces the call cost of all Wizards called from hand by 1 gauge. Mary Sue and Virginie Casta now become 1-gauge monsters while Axia spam is now free. To top it off, Andy comes with a meaningful 2-crit which goes along splendidly with the whole Grandfather Clock combo.

There are some pretty major errors on the Bushiroad EN site as of no, so I'll try my best to clarify some points here before they fix stuff (the rulings are all okay on the Japanese site, they were mistranslated over). Andy's effect will reduce call cost of any Wizard you choose to call from hand - even if the said Wizard is going to conflict with a game state ruling. For example, if I have Andy and Andy alone on the field and try to cast Virignie Casta, Casta's call cost would still be reduced to 1 even though Andy would be removed from the field after Casta hits. Similarly, if I have 1 gauge and attempt to call Mary Sue and my opponent counters with Dragonic Thunder to smash Andy, Mary Sue will still hit the field - and only for 1 gauge. This is because call cost is paid before your opponent's counter timing and before field size needs to be checked as per Resolution Check. Which basically means this guy is broken.

Don't even try, noob

Epic Fail! is a great card. If your opponent is attacking with a single Size 2 or lower monster, it acts like a Magical Goodbye. But if you happen to have a Dragowizard on the field, Epic Fail! takes it a step further and sends the card into your opponent's gauge, forcing them to -0.5 from the trade. That's really useful and can really mess up your opponent's strategies. It's just as good as Death Grip cost-wise and only slightly more situational.

Dragowizard, Gan Alchimia is a very expensive card to use. It has a 4-gauge Act ability that destroys any card on the field, similar to Bastin Caps. In order to use it effectively, you'd most likely combo it with Gotcha! and waste your opponent's gauge at the same time. Gan Alchimia's ability is one of the first Act abilities not to have a "may" condition so you can't choose to not go through with the effect, even if the target disappears.

Here's a conversation I had with a friend regarding Iris:

Oops! Tehe

"Oh man, so good, run 4 + buddy no other options"

"Come on man, be serious, she's only justifiable as a 2-of at most"
"And that's just for lolz"

"NO"
"Buddy or riot"
"I am serious. Moe is auto-win"

"But that's why you run her at 1 or 2, so that it will be surprise moe"
"If she's your buddy, the maximum moe effect cannot be achieved"

"Oh man, the unseen moe is the deadliest"

You can try guessing who was whom.

Potions swirling around me

Link! It's dangerous out there! You must take this with you. Or rather, Link really sucks. 6000/2/6000 only when you cast a spell? And only once a turn? That's depressing.

Ren Kogasaki, on the other hand, is a great card. It's hard to think that there's ever a turn playing Wizards when you won't play a spell, so this guy is basically a free 3-crit Size 1 continuously. Makes Wizards also very rush-potent. Remember that damage is dealt after the Play Timing during which your opponent can negate. So you can link 3 Rens for 6 damage, and then if they choose to negate, you can drop Abra Cadabra and suddenly your opponent is taking 9 damage to the face. Much lolsack. There's a lot of neat things you can do with Rens and Counter timing spells, including much interesting plays with stuff like Gunrods too.

All hail the new era!

New-Era Great Spell, The Creation is a new Set Impact that the Magic World gets. You can use it in either deck, but it has the Wizard attribute so I'll stick it here (it's actually fantastic with Vassago though). Every time you draw a card through an effect, you can gain a life and a gauge for no additional cost. Draw and Charge and Draw don't count, but anything else, like Spells and effects do. Also, you can only do it once per turn, so don't expect to really spam it for plussing. It's a decent enough +1, but in some slightly awkward resources.

I would say more about the card's weaknesses, but a fellow blogger, TheMedicNinja, has already covered the basics more than enough. So I'll talk about what makes this card actually viable and playable. The key is in the synergy this card has with several draw spells available to Magic, including Kosher and Key of Solomon, Second Volume. See, every time you cast Kosher with this you get +1 life, +2 gauge, and another card. Every Second Volume with a First Volume in drop gives you +2 life, +1 gauge, and another card. If you're running that with First Volume, that's another +2 gauge if you cast it. That's a lot of gauge. So what do you do with this much gauge? Why, blow it all out, of course! 4 Iris 4 Mary Sue should do the trick. This allows you to spam out Virginie Casta like crazy as well. Your last card on field should be Glassart, because nothing is better than on-hit draw 1 gain 1 life. By running this much readily-available gauge ramp, you're allowed to be a lot more greedier with spell selection, like having all those Oops! and Abra Cadabra! available. Since you're constantly milling cards like this, you can ready Grandfather Clock a lot more conveniently, giving this kind of gauge-blasting playstyle a lot of benefits.

Officially worse than Rin

Wizards rightfully reclaim their throne as the advantage control kings of Buddyfight. Their whole gameplay thus far have all been about control - paying costs and requirements for situational advantages. When those didn't work out, Wizards faltered hard - they needed raw advantage power to really come back strong. And raw power they got.

The new boss of the archetype demonstrates how strong new Wizards. Luvia the Mirage has Double Attack on a 6000/2/6000 for 3 gauge. We've seen this before in Hearty the Devastator, but this card is on a whole different level. Once per turn, whenever you cast a spell on your turn, you can draw a card. That's it. Yeah. She inherently +1's every turn she's out including the turn she's played. Nice One! for draw 3? I'll take that any day. On top of that, her Counter ability allows you to discard a Wizard to neuter a card on your opponent's field: -2000/2000 and -1 crit. Essentially she always has 8000 stats and if she's called to the side she can prevent damage as well. Amazing.

The trump card

But what Luvia can now discard is what really breaks and defines the Wizards deck. Meet Battlewizard, The Ace and Battlewizard, The Straight. They're your average Size 0 and Size 1 beaters, although The Ace being Size 0 and The Straight having 2 crit is worth mentioning. More importantly, whenever they're discarded from the hand, they can pay 1 life to do something cool. The Ace draws a card and The Straight gives you 2 gauge. Now, The Straight is a nice addition because being able to convert discard washes into +0.5 resource conversions with a monster is nice. But The Ace? Activating The Creation on your opponent's turn? Another +1 life and +1 gauge for no reason? This is where Wizards start to become a bit ridiculous.

Ace and Straight combos well with a lot of other Wizards we've seen like Tempest Wing (permanent sideboard resident) as well as a host of other spells that have discarding as a cost. They even work well with 72 Pillars cards like Asmodai.

For example, Great Spell Auld Lang Syne. You can discard your entire hand and pay 3 gauge if you have 7 or more different Wizards in your drop zone. If you do, you can grab whatever card you want from your drop zone, return all cards back into your deck, shuffle, and then your life magically shoots up to 10. It's like a total reset button! Usually the card you target is Never Say Never which allows you to draw more cards, but if you discarded any Ace or Straight you can pay their cost at this point and either draw more cards or get more gauge. Since their effects are Auto abilities (as far as I know), you pay the life cost out of your new shiny 10 life rather than whatever you had before.

And now that both Auld Lang Syne and Grandfather Clock can be tutored (or rather, salvaged) by the new Gunrod, you can basically unendingly loop game-winning spells until your opponent just dies.

Pretty much perfect

Ideal Girl, Mary Sue shows off just how good Size 1 can get for Wizards. Being able to freely bounce monsters around is great for any deck that wants to control, and Ideal Mary offers many different utilities. You can bounce your own monsters to trigger on-play again or bounce opponent problematic monsters. A really powerful effect that can draw its worth out over different situations.

Magic World traditionally has had issues with Size 3 monsters, so Nothing to It! was actually a really interesting a highly apt answer. It specifically targets Size 3 monsters so its great against matchups and kills them at Counter timing no less for very cheap.

Qinus Axia SD is a lot worse than its original, and I hope you can see why. On-play verses on-attack is huge in this game.

- updated to H-BT03, 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.