The Might of Hammurabi (Overview)

Go big or go home.

So like, Size 3's are a thing. They're the biggest monsters you can call to your field without doing something that just breaks the game's rules, and they can't be accompanied on the field by anything larger than a Size 0. Usually they're also pretty expensive and as a result have huge stats, tons of keywords like Penetrate and Double Attack, and some seriously interesting abilities that, regardless of whether or not it's good, makes you feel pretty good about playing that Size 3.

Ancient World is like that, except it's actually good.

If you just want to sit on this gigantic block for the entire game (and don't want to play Death Tallica), you've definitely come to the right place. In the current metagame of weapons and open centers, Ancient World stands strong as an archetype that totally disregards all of that. You take one of the eight or so Size 3 bosses in your deck and you plop it into your center and you ride it home to victory. If you like protecting a huge monster for basically the entire game and banking all your money into quality and consistency rather than diversity and versatility, you'll definitely like Ancient World.

Oh, if you like shouting. That too.

Between the Dragon Lords and the Wild Dragons, there'll be enough shouting to go around. But when it comes to pure guts and courage, Raging Spirits have got you covered.

Since ancient times...

I'll be going over the different Size 3 bosses in their specific archetype articles, so in this overview article I'll address the Ancient World engine, which I honestly believe is the strongest resource engine in the entire game. They have cards that plus to life, gauge, and hand in ridiculous numbers, often working together in synergistic ways to hit key thresholds. Most of these cards should be run at max copies, and they can all be entertained in any build.

In fact, it's really cool how casting the spells work. Here, let me do an example:

Life: 10

Gauge: 2

Hand: 6

The casting order will be Divine Dragon Creation > Dragon Emperor Legend > Rise & Fall of Dragons > Dragon Dreams.

Life: 10 > 8 > 9 > 7 > 10

Gauge: 2 > 2 > 3 > 7 > 7

Hand: 6 > 7 > 7 > 6 > 5

There's actually one more card we can use at this point to see how these cards mesh together. It's Buddy Help, that terrible draw card that draws at a -0.5 cost.

Life: 10 > 8 > 9 > 7 > 10 > 10

Gauge: 2 > 2 > 3 > 7 > 7 > 4

Hand: 6 > 7 > 7 > 6 > 5 > 6

So after all that, you get 2 gauge for free. You might think that's sort of underwhelming but free gauge is actually pretty huge. The fact that you can get that kind of value without really doing anything is huge, especially since you're not losing either hand or health for any of this. And remember, Buddy Help is actually a minus yet the actual value of the Ancient World engine isn't even hampered by that.

For reference, the net worth of the cards used are (in order): wash, +1, wash, +0.5, -0.5. The really broken one is Dragon Emperor Legend, but the crazy resource conversions of Divine Dragon Creation and Rise & Fall are what makes this deck so explosive.

KAMEHAMEHAAAAA

Having a deck built on Size 3 really could use some good secondary damage source. We get it in the form of an Impact card, one of the best in the entire game. Evil Crusher, Steel Dragon Barrage can be used as long as you have a Size 3 on the field (not trait restricted) and your opponent's field is empty. You can then pay 3 gauge to deal 4 damage to your opponent. I think there's something missing...wait, you can cast this card whenever you want? Your opponent doesn't have to be at 4 life or less? Wow! It's actually really freaking flexible! Ancient World is relatively concerned about field so this card is a great way to maintain damage while your Size 3 clears their entire field. Cost-wise, -2.5 in cards/gauge for +3 in (direct) damage is pretty worth it.

Lightning Bolt!

There are two important counter spells in Ancient World: Flame Dragon Cascade and Dragon Thunder. They both target similar things, monsters with less than 2000 power or defense. Dragon Thunder costs nothing and pops one, while Flame Dragon Cascade costs 2 gauge and pops everything. The former is great for sniping threats, while the latter helps a lot against aggro decks that attempt to rush with multiple low-defense cards. You should have access to both between your main and side deck, so it's up to you to side in the correct one in the correct matchup. They're both very important cards because of the lack of defensive and counter spells in Ancient World.

There's also a set spell, Dragonverse. On paper it's a good card, healing 1 every time a card with Lifelink hits the field. However, since you're focused on keeping your Size 3's on the field rather than constantly calling Lifelink cards, Dragonverse doesn't proc that much. And it's kinda expensive for a card that really shouldn't be activating unless you're losing. Life is also a very deceptive resource in Ancient because of huge Lifelink, as the difference between 1 life and 5 life is still death. It takes a good player and a good sense of the resource to continuously converting it out to make it relevant.

Trigger check! Get!
Wrath Trigger!

Wrath Trigger is a PR card that is a staple in every Ancient World deck. It give pseudo-Soulguard to any monster and also gives Counterattack. For a set that has huge stats already, Counterattack with no stat boosts is totally okay and viable. Wrath Trigger is a bit expensive but it's the only thing you have that works, so you have to use it.

That does it for spells, but there's actually a ton of monsters in Ancient World that are basically spells. They act as normal monsters, but when you have a Size 3 on the field you can "cast" them as spells to get, well, spell-like effects. Since most of these cards have Lifelink, you really just want to use them for the spell effect. I'll go over them here as well, since they can be used with any Size 3 monster, not restricted to trait. And since there are a ton of them, I'll just list them out for easy reference.

Fortune Dragon, Forbolka: +2 gauge

Flame Dragon Emperor, Magmanova: 1 direct damage

Storm Dragon Emperor, Thundertornado: -1 gauge, destroy weapon/spell

Rock Dragon Emperor, Vragos: +2 life

Ice Dragon Emperor, Glacies: -1 life, nullify attack

Wicked Dragon of Fabrication, Demonica: [Counter] -2 gauge, -1 life, nullify spell

Emerald Dragon Emperor, Jedaflight: -1 gauge, +5000 power

Seek Dragon Emperor, Azludea: -1 gauge, +Penetrate

Phantom Dragon Emperor, Lucus Vision: -1 gauge, +Size 3 monster from drop
Guardian Dragon Emperor, Amuray: -1 life, nullify Lifelink
Shimmer Energy Dragon, Aurora: reduce damage by 2
Revolution Dragon, Evolution: -1 gauge, +1 critical

They all have Lifelink 1, so try not to actually play them unless you have to.

Dragon...cat?

Forbolka is useful, as gauge is well used in Ancient World and your only other form of getting a lot at once costs life. Thundertornado is great but it's not [Counter] timing which really sucks. Vragos is bad but you run it because it has 7000 defense that actually matters if you just whiff Size 3's for a long period of time. Glacies is your only attack negate so...yeah, sucks to suck. Spell negates got weaker after clarification but they're still stupidly good. Power and Penetrate are relatively irrelevant, as most of the Size 3's already have huge power and Penetrate already.

Destruction Dragon Emperor, Gatastol marks the first unit like the ones above that actually exists on a Size 3 body. Which means he can also fulfill the conditions for other effects like his own, which is kinda funky. His effect is just Crimson Slash, but the fact that he's a Size 3 you can just have in your Ancient World deck makes him kinda good. He doesn't even have Lifelink. You can emergency call him to cast your Magmanovas and Steel Dragon Barrages, and he also has decent stats (looking at 3/7000). Very nice.

Fist of the North Star

Technically not restricted to Raging Spirits, the new Impact Maximum Manliness! Palm of the Fury Dragon has a name that makes me want to just cry in a corner. What the hell...anyways, it costs the same as Steel Dragon Barrage but has an easier condition. You trade 2 damage for field clear, so its value is based on what kind of winning image you have. Personally, I like Steel Dragon Barrage better because damage but this one allows you to concentrate on slamming face and let the Impact do the cleanup. Which is nice. Works well with the super-high crits of the Raging Spirits.

AH ZABENYA

More spells guys! More math! Soaring Dragon, Fair Skylines costs 2 gauge (-2 including cast) to grab 3 cards (+3) and then discard 2 (-2). Yikes. -1 isn't a very nice number, that's even worse than Buddy Help. That isn't to say that a card profile like this is bad, necessarily. It would be great if Ancient World could utilize the drop, allowing you to command dump cards and profit (imagine this card in Deep!). But Ancient World lacks drop utility, so this card kinda sucks. It does allow you to dig deeper for cards, but the cost is too great for that extra topdeck.

Dragon Arcadia. Is. Broken. Run one-two in every Ancient World (read: Sieger) deck. Get free life every turn. Life is so easy. Literally. When life is such an easy to convert resource in this deck, this card is definitely a staple. Think about it, dropping Arcadia T1 is almost a game-win in most situations, as an average Sieger/Adil will stick on field for at least 4-5 turns, if not more. The moment Arcadia hits 4 turns (including the turn you play it), it's going to be even with Dreams and every turn after that is just gold. And since you didn't pay anything to drop it, your opponent would have to minus a lot to remove Arcadia. Easy game.

Be smart about dragons

Is what I would like to say. But unfortunately, deck space and consistency are both things to worry about, and Arcadia has the potential to be dead. I consider it to be on-par with Dreams even when factoring inconsistency in, but I probably wouldn't drop Dreams for Arcadia. Your best bet is to run Arcadia alongside Dreams at 1/2 or 2/2. Since Sieger decks often are tight on space, Arcadia probably sees the most use in Adil-based decks. Also, don't use in Raging Spirits. Please.

Dragon Prudent is a Battle Aura Circle clone for Ancient World. You might think it's only good for Raging Spirits, but its actually a decent tech for just about any deck. You'll definitely have turns when you won't have a fat Size 3 in your center, so its a good negate for those purposes. I'd definitely run this in Adil-based decks, since Adil is more short-lived than Sieger. Same goes for Ladis.

Fistbump!

I actually have a lot to say about Charge of Virtuous Blood. It's deceptively bad and deceptively good at the same time. We'll start with how it's deceptively bad. You might be tempted to run this thing instead of Rise and Fall of Dragons because you don't have to pay 2 life. But that's not how it works, because giving your opponent 4 gauge as well can be disastrous for you. Why would you fuel the fire that's gonna burn you? Against decks that can immediately transition gauge into advantage, this is like killing yourself, especially since you had to discard a card and they didn't. And since you can only cast this in Final Phase, your opponent gets dibs on using that resource first before you. I'd rather pay 2 life (-2 for +2) than let my opponent get 4 gauge (-1 for wash).

Now that I've stated all the issues with Virtuous Blood, I can talk about just how hilarious this card can actually be, because in certain decks this will kill your opponent because they can't do anything about anything important you just forced into their gauge. For example, most Dragon World decks can't pull anything out of the drop zone, which means if you force your opponent to charge away an important card then they're never getting it back. Which is pretty hilarious and might haphazardly win you a game or two. Don't count on it, but don't count out the disruption potential of this card in certain matchups. Since you don't have to take the -2 life compared to Rise and Fall, it might be a worthy option in Sieger decks so you'll always have enough fuel for Spartand, perhaps even multiple times.

Worth a thousand men

A Dragon Against Thousands is a great example of why you can't simply value or balance a card in a vacuum. In any other world this card would be absolute crap. Card only gives a single monster +1000/1000. Goes into soul, doesn't give Soulguard. Absolutely whatever. But in Ancient World, where more than half your good Size 3's already have Soulguard, this card is absolutely disgusting. Especially for a card like Adil Diablos, who misses 7000 defense by 1000. Not anymore! Even better, if you're really lucky and believe hard enough you can even play Adil and hit one of these into the soul when you get the soul from topdeck. Because despite being a Raging Spirits attribute card, it works for every Ancient World deck. Weird.

They gave everybody a weapon that can attack over your center. And it also can't be nullified when it attacks alone. Scatter Armor, Enma is important for all builds because it is infinitely better than Burning Bow (ha!) and is also a secondary Item for Raging Builds, as well as allowing Size 3 center decks to attack 4 times a turn.

Oh shoot, Poison Flame Armor Mushibami is literally a ticking time bomb. That's really cool card design.

- updated to H-BT04, CP01, H-EB04, H-TD04, 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.