Yes or No: Common Buddyfight Misconceptions

I've been working on updating my Detailed Buddyfight Flowchart ever since Bushiroad updated theirs in November. While they made no drastic changes to the actual rules of the game, they did clarify certain aspects of the game that bothered a lot of veteran players (face-down soul, size ruling, etc). It was a good exercise to go back and refamiliarize myself with the inner workings of the game.

It also reminded me that there are some quirks of the game that people just keep getting wrong. There's a lot of intricacy with the way Buddyfight words things, and it takes a well-trained eye to catch all the details. For this article, I'll be running a sort of quiz-show and allowing readers to answer "Yes or No" to some common misconceptions floating around in the game.

By the way, the Detailed Buddyfight Flowchart is updated. You can find it on this page and use it as a reference.

Without further ado...let the game begin!

Rule #2: All conflict in this world will be resolved through games~

Yes or No: Effect targets are decided upon resolution

Answer: No. Targets are always decided during declaration of the effect. The formal order of events when you declare an ability/use a card is as follows:

1. Declare casting the spell/use of the ability
2. Pay the cost (if any)
3. Select the target

While this is not specifically stated outright in the rules documentation, you can see mentions of target selection here and there (check the part on [Act] abilities). The reason Bushiroad doesn't state this plainly is because they consider target selection to be part of the "cost" associated with using the ability/card. That and they thought it was obvious. Ha.

Target selection upon declaration is only fair. This can be justified from a game design perspective. When you play a card or use an ability, there is an intent and purpose behind it. Nobody plays cards in hopes that something arbitrary will happen, there's always a concrete goal and result. By associating target selection with declaration, Buddyfight assures that the game remains direct and preserves a lot of clarity. As an opponent responding to a cast or activation, you're given the opportunity to counter something specfic and are guaranteed the effectiveness of the counter. Imagine having a system where you can counter but aren't sure whether or not it will even work. Who wants to play a game like that?

So the next time someone tries to cast an empty Pillar of Fire in hopes of burning anything that exists, please remind them that they need to choose a target before using Dragobond and laughing at them.

Yes or No: You can activate Demon Lord, Asmodai's effect but do nothing

Answer: Yes. Ah, this is a fun one. Read his effect carefully. "When this card enters the field, you may discard a card from your hand." That "may" changes everything. Remember, with regards to [Act] abilities there usually is no activation cost. The activation is simply saying "I use X ability" and the rest of the effect is the resolution. Which means that the optional discard is part of the resolution, and you can choose to do it or not.

Here's the catch: you choose to discard or not after your opponent has his chance to counter. Meaning that if your opponent chooses to use Dark Energy or Dragon Barrier or some other protection spell, you can simply say "Eh, I guess I won't actually use it" and laugh as your opponent wastes a card for essentially nothing.

Well, in Asmodai's case it's actually something, since you need to declare the target upon declaring the ability and you've lost your chance to destroy a monster that you wanted to (you saved yourself a card though). But there's even eviler instances of this case. We're talking Inferno Armor Dragon. Oh God. Inferno Shoot's text says "You may discard two soul from this card." You know what that means? You can activate Inferno Shoot, choose not to discard two soul, watch your opponent waste a protection card, then activate Inferno Shoot again on your next Play Timing to guarantee the kill. In other words, you can't actually block Inferno Shoot. It's simply impossible.

This isn't as devastating as it actually sounds. Most protection effects like Dragon Barrier last until the end of the turn, so it's not like you managed to completely waste a spell. As for effects like Dark Energy, the activation timing is actually not "before a monster is destroyed" but "when a monster would be destroyed", meaning you actually cast Dark Energy after the monster is destroyed and not during the counter timing of the [Act] ability. Even so, this still gives the [Act] user a lot of leeway. You now have options to either go through with the ability or choose a different plan of action. Your opponent also showed their hand against you, allowing you to use this to your advantage.

Against people who don't actually realize this, make sure you take your time and declare the ability without doing anything. Give them the chance to counter and then make them suffer for not knowing the rules well enough.

Yes or No: You can't prevent Electron Ninja, Shiden from using his ability with Counter destruction

Answer: Yes. What? It's true though. Think about it for a moment.

Look at the steps for a call. What do you think happens after the steps are completed? Logically, the game enters into a Play Timing for a Resolution Check and to allow abilities to activate. During a Play Timing, who gets to use an ability first? Turn Player. Finally, check Shiden's Cyber Analysis. Shiden being on the field is not a condition for the ability to work. Put the pieces together and you get a guaranteed activation.

Call Shiden. As soon as Shiden enters the field, you have Play Timing precedence to use Cyber Analysis. Your opponent can counter with something like Dragonic Thunder, but that only happens after you declare to use the ability and once you've done that it will assuredly resolve. As long as you choose to Cyber Analysis immediately after the call, your opponent actually has no timing to get rid of Shiden before the ability activates. Your opponent can use Begone!! to get rid of Shiden during call, but that's to stop Shiden from actually entering the field at all. Once Shiden hits the field, it's guaranteed a Cyber Analysis no matter what. Unless they had an [Auto] ability trap set up like Art of Explosive Hades Fall. I missed this case in the first draft because [Auto] abilities always cause exceptions and loopholes.

Yes or No: You can cast Dragobond and then Move to the center both in the Attack Phase

Answer: No. This happens way too often, and is an illegal play.

At the beginning of the Attack Phase, Move abilities activate first with Turn Player precedence. After that comes a Play Timing for abilities that activate "at the beginning of your attack phase" and so on. Dragobond needs to be cast at a Play Timing, and the earliest Attack Phase Play Timing is after Move effects go off. If you Move a monster to the center, you can't cast Dragobond on it during the Attack Phase. You'd have to do it before during the Main Phase.

People make this mistake all the time. When your opponent says "Begin Attack Phase", you are immediately forced to choose to Move your monsters. Unless you say "Oh, before that let me do this", you're not allowed to cast spells or activate abilities before Moving. This is such a small point of contention but at high-level tournaments this is definitely something to be wary of.

Yes or No: You can cast White Dragon Shield during the "deals damage" Play Timing to reduce damage

Answer: No. White Dragon Shield only stops damage the "next time" you take damage and the Play Timing for "deals damage" assumes you've already been hit.

Actually, take a closer look at the attack phase steps. There's the Play Timing where both players can use at most 1 counter, and then there's the check to see if the attack hits. At that point, your fate is sealed. If you take any damage at that step, it is 100% guaranteed to go in. This is because the very next thing is a Play Timing, and every Play Timing starts with a Resolution Check. If battle leaves you with 0 HP, you lose at that point without getting to the "deals damage" Play Timing. That Play Timing is for effects that activate after you take damage and not when you take damage. Then when part is technically an [Auto] timing that will either float or get moved to that Play Timing depending on the effects.

Basically, you have one chance to stop damage, and that's at the 1 counter limit Play Timing. If you can't stop damage there, you're guaranteed to take it and the damage will stick.

Also, since you can't counter Penetrate damage, the same applies for when you take damage via Penetrate in battle.

Hope these little tidbits of information were useful or eye-opening. It gives a glimpse of just how spectacularly intricate Buddyfight can actually be as a game...and how players can take advantage of certain feedback loops to work the system in their favor.

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.