Who Left This Corpse Out? - Musings of a Bygone Buddyfight Player

UPDATE: Since Buddyfight is dead and no actual human being is going to check this blog from now on, I'm turning on ads for the first time in 6 years so I can harvest money from the random bots that visit. A penny is a penny.

So I'm sitting at my desk, browsing Reddit and Discord servers and getting ready to play the new Genshin Impact event when I open up Twitch and see that the Bushiroad AO tournament is streaming. Thinking I should watch some gameplay to prepare for judging the NA tournament tomorrow, I open it up and start watching. Safe to say, I don't recognize any of the cards on screen, and it isn't just because the camera quality is garbage. But it's vaguely reminiscent of a Buddyfight that I once knew.

The game ends, the commentator's faces are revealed and who do I see but Krishiv! That's a name I haven't heard in years and a person I haven't talked to in just as long. I'm super excited and happy for him that he's casting this event, and I immediately try to contact him - only to realize that I'm no longer in any Discord groups with him, and we never added each other on Facebook since I was using another persona during my Buddyfight days (this one). I try to find other people like Hunter and Tim and I realize that, wow, I'm actually not connected to these guys anymore, mostly because all the interaction I had with them in the past was as Blaise and not as "me". It's a very mixed feeling.

So I'm combing through my options, and my roads lead back to here - the only outlet I have left. This now incredibly defunct blog that I built single-handedly in college, the place where I poured my passion for card games and Buddyfight for two years as best as I could. Five years ago, I had to make the difficult decision to move on from Buddyfight and pursue other things in life - career, community, other card games. And now, it is Buddyfight that is moving on from all of us.

I'm feeling nostalgic tonight, so I'll write something up. This time, it really is the end.

(Well, except for all the people that will continue to play kitchen top and stuff but I'm trying to get a mood going here).

Buddyfight was my...third? TCG that I picked up, after Pokemon and Cardfight Vanguard, and it was the first game that I took seriously and competitively. After getting past the weird name, I discovered a game that was interactive, exciting, well-balanced, and extensive. The foundation of the game was solidly built on principles of math and logic, which lead to concepts, tactics, and strategies that could be calculated. At the same time, the game had a great sense of capturing fun and designing unique and interesting gameplay that was interactive - something I took for granted then but now understand is sorely lacking in most Bushiroad card games.

A lot of people I know have been playing ever since the start. Perhaps we all saw the same potential the game had, that it could go places and become a great competitive game for years. Maybe some of it was the satisfaction of being the underdog, having discovered a gem of a game that others scorned at first glance, laughing at the name. Regardless, the game did progress in a positive direction, the community grew both online and offline, and people started giving the game the attention it deserved. I watched as the regionals in Southern California grow from a paltry 60 person start to a 200+ man tournament that beat out Weiss Schwarz numbers one 2017 (or was it 2018?) BCS. Even though I had moved on, I knew many who hadn't, and I was not expecting Buddyfight to. If I had paid closer attention, maybe I could've seen the writing on the wall. Was it Overturn/Overkill? Belost? The Bandori and CG Gekijou sets? Even as the power creep constantly crept itself, I didn't think the game was dying - and the numbers both stateside and in Japan were solid. It really is a mystery to me, one that I won't likely be solving anytime soon.

I started this blog 7 years ago (jeez thats a long time) because I had done the math in response to discussion about card advantage in the game and came up with something that I felt was concrete, solid, and backed up by both current and upcoming cards at the time. The reception to my first article was (I thought) extremely positive, which encouraged and motivated me to keep going. At the time I was getting a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science / Games Design, and this blog was a way to put into practice both my tech skills in coding and modifying the site as well as my game design knowledge that I was learning at university. It was by all means a project driven purely by motivation and passion, and I'm shocked that I kept up with it for 2 years. Since then I've definitely changed, grown, and matured; I've tried my best not to read my old articles because I'd kill myself from cringe. I've considered just taking the site down multiple times and erasing the evidence, but I think about all the people that (somehow) appreciated and benefited from the site, and I decide against it.

Speaking of which, why does this site have almost 450,000 views? What? When I retired it had like 300k something and it was already outdated, who the hell is coming back to this? But even 300,000 at the time was just an astronomical number to me, and I'm still so thankful to all the support I got back then. Really, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. I'm not worthy.

I chose Ikkyuu Tensai as an avatar because I really enjoyed her quirky personality. She was immature and bratty, but when it came to the case she was serious, capable, and always gave it her 100% - and I really related to that back then. Man, this was before I even knew light novels were a thing and that Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizoukin was originally a light novel - Tensai looks SO much better in light novel art.

Best girl.

Funny story, because I used her as my avatar and an apparently feminine-enough username, some readers thought I was female. No joke, I've received emails addressed to a "Ms. Blaise". That's kinda wild. Sorry, I guess. Blaise comes from an even older online username I used that had the word "Blaze" in it. I modified it to match the French mathematician Blaise Pascal, who is undoubtedly male.

As I'm closing out this article, I realize that even though I had retired as a blogwriter, I still very much kept up with Buddyfight all the way until the pandemic. After becoming a certified judge, I judged every Buddyfight event in California for three years straight - if you've played there, chances are you've seen me around. I think judging was a way for me to continue supporting and contributing to the community and the competitive scene, and I enjoy it very much. As I said, I will be judging for the BSFO NA event this weekend, so I hope to see some of you there.

This article has been just unfiltered rambling and reminiscing, so I'm sorry if this reads completely incoherent to many of you. I think part of me wants to recapture something I've lost since retiring the blog. Although I think I'm mainly writing out of frustration that all the friends I made back then don't actually know who I am, and this blogger persona has taken away a sizable portion of my TCG relationships away. But I also think I want to say that I was here from the start, that I'm here at the end, and that I've seen the ups and downs, the rise and fall of a game over the course of 7 years. 

And I want to say, standing at the end, that it was a good ride.

_________________________________________________________________

If you're going to read my other old articles, first of all don't, second of all please understand past me is very dumb and stupid and cringe and used words in dumb stupid cringe ways, past me is a mess that I want to die and has died, don't @ me about anything lalala.

Feel free to reach out to me if you knew me back then and don't know me now, I would love to get reconnected! This is not a signal for help I am not lonely and sad that Blaise Tensai has friends but I don't

The End of an Era - June 2016 Update

If it hasn't been very obvious already, I'm unable to keep up with Buddyfight any longer.

There are lots of reasons and excuses I can give.

• College has been more time-consuming than I had originally expected. This makes it very difficult for me to prioritize blogging at any given point during the school year.
• Being away from home means I'm far away from my locals, so I don't get to actually play Buddyfight at all anymore. That sucks.
• I can't find cards at reasonable pricing, and it's hard for me to buy decks that I'm passionate about playing.
• I can't afford to play this game because the market is atrocious. Because there is no market. And if I can't play card games physically, it really makes it hard for me to keep up passionately. Hearthstone excepted.

But ultimately, it's because I've lost passion for the game.

It's not that the game is bad. Far from it. I think Buddyfight is a great game with very good foundations. It's well balanced. There are meaningful tradeoffs with field positioning and weapons. Sideboarding exists. Valuation of cards has been consistent and intentional. It has the potential to be a fair and fun game.

The problem lies with, well, everything else. The lack of a stable market for cards, which means insanely high prices for an unpopular game. That means its harder to attract newcomers, which in turn makes it difficult to establish cheap prices. Older staples get harder and harder to find. The situation is bad, and unless something changes drastically it will not improve itself.

The problem also lies with me, too. I'm not really into Buddyfight from an aesthetic sense, in the same way I'm not really into Magic the Gathering or Yugioh. I play Weiss Schwarz because anime, and I like Vanguard and WIXOSS because anime-inspired. Pokemon is awesome and Hearthstone is free. That's basically how it goes.

So at this point, there are only two options for me:

1. Discontinue blogging
2. Attempt to catch-up

The problem with #1 is: I still love to blog. And write about card games. And talk about card games. It's fun, it's something I'm passionate about, it's something that I've given a lot of time and effort into. I don't want to just see it die, incomplete, neglected. I've gotten to know great people through this and it's been a meaningful chapter in my life.

But there's no way #2 will ever happen. It's impossible. I'm too far behind, and there's only going to be less time for me to give to the blog from here on out.

Here's where the final nail in the coffin comes in.

In about a week, I'm going to be leaving the US on a two-month missions program to Mongolia and China. During which I won't have reliable access to internet and my entire schedule will be packed with English teaching, evangelism, training, and all sorts of activities and events. I come back the week before I start school.

I'm out of time.

But I want to make a clean ending. And I managed to do so during this week.

If you go and check, every World Article should be updated for all of the Hundred Boosters, EBs and the very last Perfect Pack with the Inverse stuff. The last thing I need to do is to create a separate Demon Lord from Dungeon Enemy and I'll be finished with everything pre-Triple D. And that's as far as I'm going to go.

My first article was today, two years ago. June 9th. It was about card advantage, and how Buddyfight had a very strict system that encompassed every statline in the game. It's still something they continue to abide by today, which gives the game a fair standard and helps develop a stable metagame.

For the past two years I've continued to follow the growth and development with varying success. And personally I've grown a lot too, both in experience and knowledge. Looking back at some of the stuff I wrote in 2014, I shudder at my over-exaggerative language and my naive assumptions.

My greatest achievement, however, has been my foresight. I noted in my Impact article way back in September 2014 that Impacts were going to become cheaper, more utility-based and at higher numbers in decks. And they did, slowly but surely. And now we've got Impact monsers. Amazing. Maybe one day we'll get to see that 8 Impact per deck I envisioned back then.

I've taken a lot of inspiration from an old Vanguard site called V-Mundi. The writer there had great articles, many better than my own, but she also faded out of writing after about two...arcs? Defining periods of the game's development. I think I'm fated to go down the same path, having written for all of the original period and the Hundred era but not having the steam to continue this train.

So this is the last station. For Buddyfight, that is.

But if you're interested in joining me a bit farther...I'm going to start up a personal blog. One that isn't specifically about a single game, but rather about my experience and insight as a TCG player. Because frankly, Buddyfight is actually a game I have little experience in, but a game that I've done the most research for. Buddyfight Theory is the fruit of my research. But I'd like to talk about other games I enjoy, like Weiss Schwarz, ChaOS, WIXOSS, Pokemon, and even Hearthstone. I don't want to be limited to a single topic or game, especially not when I have so much diversity to offer. And I'd like to rant about anime occasionally too.

I'm still brainstorming for good blog names, so I'm open to suggestions.

Anyways, I'd like to take the time right now to thank everyone for supporting me throughout the years. It's been an absolute honor to write for you all, to hear your voices and to be a part of this amazing community. I remember how shocked and happy I was when I was 2nd on the poll for guest speakers for the livestream event we had, losing only to...John Cena, of course. I've had a really amazing time, met awesome people and made good friends. It's hard to put this feeling of gratitude into words...

Oh God no not Shirobako Episode 23 why are you coming now that episode was so sad please stop I don't want to cry

(I admit, it's getting a bit emotional for me to write this though. Nostalgia hit pretty hard and I'm feeling kinda sappy right now)

Huge shoutout to all the people who supported me on Patreon...and then refused to contact me so I couldn't send them any rewards. You can still claim them, you know. And the support really helped me get through a tough time, and without the support I don't think I would be where I am today.

Many thanks to HunterSerge and Austin Somers for being my main bros, also Damian, Tim, and the rest of the gang. You guys are awesome, wish I met more of you in real life, and I hope we can continue to be...buddies? Aha, ahahaha.

I guess I'll end on a Tensai quote.

 

これで全ての謎は解けたな

Now all the mysteries are solved

And with that~

Black Knight

With H-BT04, Black Knights become an exclusive archetype apart from Deep and it's time to give them their own page. Similarly to Deep, Black Knights rely on flooding the drop zone with cards to fuel their effects. There's also this weird mechanic with Buddy Monsters...we can get to that in a bit.

There's really not much to say about them just now, other than the fact that it's basically a Deep deck except you replace beefy Size 3 tanks with Black Knights.

January 2016 Update [H-EB04]

新年快乐！

I'll try to start the new year off with a better track record than 2015, but no promises or resolutions.

• Buddy Allstars+ have all been added to the blog except for Star Dragon World. I'll get around to those in a bit, sorry!

Deck Profile: Much Adil about Nothing

Here's the last one of the series! I really enjoyed going through these and received some great comments and criticisms. Just a quick reminder for all of you though:

That includes my own.

Let's get to the point regarding our 2015 North American Champion Kevin Cho's deck!

Deck Spotlight: EVERYONE, GET IN HERE

There's like no other way to describe this deck.

I'm still trying to figure out the mad scientist mind behind Austin Somers, the People's Champion.

By the way this is going to be the title image for all of these.

Deck Spotlight: Ultimate Arc

Hey guys! Trying out something new as we're getting ready for the Buddy Allstars special booster box.

North American Continentals was just a few weeks ago, and I'm really proud of both of my friends who came in top 3. So as a special event, I'm going to review their winning decks and give my $0.02 on them. Without further ado...

Let the trash talking begin.

Horrifically Late November 2015 Update [H-BT03]

Let me apologize. This is unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. I am technically a professional, and as a professional tardiness of this severity simply cannot be condoned. I should fire myself. Oh wait.

There has been many times over these past two months when I've thought I would never write again, that I would never be able to post another article. Yet here we are. God has been merciful to me.

• Dragon World's World Analyses have been updated for the following articles: Overview, Armordragon, Dragon Knight
• Magic World's World Analyses have been updated for the following articles: Overview, 72 Pillars, Wizard
• Ancient World's World Analyses have been updated for the following articles: Overview, Dragon Lord, Wild Dragon, Raging Spirit
• Dungeon World's World Analyses have been updated for the following articles: Overview, Adventurer, Dungeon Enemies
• Hundred Demons article has been updated

The following articles have been created:

• Knight has been added to Dungeon World

Knight

You start out as Adventurers in typical RPGs, right? Classless beginners who run around doing whatever they can to get experience. Eventually, you become more specialized, and decide on a path and build to choose. You work hard to perfect the right stats, the right abilities, and the right combos as you improve and advance. In short, you go from being just an adventurer to becoming a true Knight.

Knights are interesting. They rely on vaguely the same advantage engines that Adventurers do (they share the same trait as well) but they've got their own thing going on. Namely two Items equipped. And a whole lot of really stupid boosts from having two Items equipped. That's actually the entire deck. Kill people with two weapons.

I'm Not Dead (Yet)

Quick Explanation of my plans for October.

⑨

Today, we celebrate being the strongest.

The absolute strongest.

Late August 2015 Update [H-EB02]

Since there was another booster, another update! Well, I actually finished the articles a long time ago but I haven't gotten around to writing the update article yet.

• Hero World's World Analyses have been updated for the following articles: Overview, Superhero, Brave Machine

The following articles have been created:

• Darkhero and Quartet Five have been added to Hero World
• Art has been added to Magic World
• Generic has been created in its entirety! Check out the following subarticles: Overview, Chess, Tarot, Battle Deity Robo

The Underappreciation of Typical Glasses-wearing Male Side Character (Overview)

This is relevant.

If you've ever thought that the archetypes you've played lacked support in any way, be it draw, gauge, removal, control, or otherwise pure gimmicks, don't forget that there's a complete extension of your dataset found here.

We're neglected, but it doesn't mean we're useless.

Battle Deity Robo

So I'm not a huge fan of robots, but I do like my share of them. I loved Bionicles as a kid and I won't deny that a cool-looking Gundam would have me ooh-ing at it. But there is an ethical reason why I can't play Brave Machines because it is simply unconstitutional for my own conscience to ever touch something remotely top-tier and bandwagonable. I can't do it. It's impossible.

So Bushiroad, understanding my plight, created Battle Deity Robos. Specifically for me. I know. They're too kind.

While they might not be as outright broken as their Hero World counterparts, Battle Deity Robos do introduce the Ride mechanic alongside some interesting options to other Worlds. And I do think they are playable, all the more so if they get a nice helping of support come H-BT03.

Tarot

I'm a big fan of fortune telling. I think it's a cool system, even if none of it makes any sense at all. And the Tarot cards all, in my opinion, represent different aspects of mankind and humanity. The reason why they're so accurate is because they cover broad, generic aspects of the human experience that we can all relate to on a innate level.

I was pretty hyped when I first saw Tarot cards in Buddyfight, just because it gave me an archetype that I was actually interested in collecting cards for. Of course, since they were Generic cards, I couldn't expect them to be good or anything. That would be asking too much.

Well, apparently somebody up in Bushi HQ likes me a whole damn lot, because they threw Tarots 4 full booster sets of support until these bad boys became a legitimate top-tier deck. Wow. What a world we live in.

There are two distinct ways to play Tarots, and a third for the funky combos. Because I love this archetype so much, I'll cover all three.

Chess

I'll make this quick and painless.

Chess sucks.

Art

When Evil Spirit Leader, Kimaris was printed as a PR with 72 Pillars/Art, everybody didn't give it a second glance. 6000/2/7000 for 2 gauge is too expensive, so Kimaris was never considered as even a remotely playable option. So nobody really gave that secondary Art attribute any notice, and the few that did probably dismissed it as some cute thing Bushiroad did.

Little did they know...

Art as it stands now is a high-crit high-play archetype. The playstyle centers around being able to negate spells with ease and constantly pushing damage into your opponent's face. Alongside some good gauge save/ramp mechanics, Art can afford to also play fast and risky with high-cost spells. But the most interesting thing about Art is the cooperation between 72 Pillars and Wizards in the same deck, something you wouldn't think could be possible.

Quartet Five

Let me give you some backstory.

There were a group of people. Unemployed. Wandering around the streets of urban Saitama, without food or shelter. Desperately trying to get odd jobs here and there to keep themselves alive. They laughed together, cried together, got mad at each other, relied on each other. They developed close bonds and swore that they would find a way to get out of their dire straits, together.

Then one guy decided they should start a hero show.

They tried the idea out with three guys. Since they were all ex-chuunibyou and high-school dropouts, they named the show Quartet Five. An English name in Japan. With the letter "Q" in the name, which must be super radical. They made costumes out of rags, they went dumpster-hunting for scraps to build robots out of. They started small. Their first showing only attracted some kindergartners playing at a nearby park. But they didn't give up. Soon, those kindergartners started bringing their parents. They would catch the glances of pedestrians and shop owners. People started gathering around as they set up their stage. Their posters drew in more and more people.

Now, they are a major attraction in Saitama and the locals love them. They were recently featured in the prefecture news, and their story has been recounted as one of the amazing success stories of the century. But they take it in stride, with their humble origins, and they congratulate their success not on talent or ability, but on the bonds that they've developed.

I just made that all up.

Darkhero

I'll be honest. I didn't think that Bushiroad could pull off more stylistic archetypes without resorting to using new Keyword Mechanics (like Crossnize). Between all the worlds and archetypes already released, it seemed that every kind of playstyle was covered already. That's what I honestly thought.

So I never saw Darkhero coming.

Similar to Skull Warriors and Purgatory Knights, Darkheroes have a very sacky playstyle, involving destroying your own monsters for better stats and/or effects. However, Darkhero doesn't just stop at destruction: you have a lot of bounce and other disappearing effects on your monsters too. To the extent that Darkhero does everything it possibly can to make sure your field is completely empty by the end of the turn. It's pretty cool.

While they have some semblance of resurrect effects, the main deal of Darkhero is draw much drop much. A lot of your engine is free cards, but a lot of your free cards require you to eventually sack more as well. It's very easy come easy go style of play that relies on hit-and-run, damage push, and very tactical choices to make sure you don't die before your opponent does. Altogether, it's a very cohesive and thematic package that really puts the fun in Buddyfunght.

Deck Profile - Secret Ninjas (Outdated)

Like my Devil's Era (Creation Control) deck, this is another deck that attempts to utilize a certain mechanic available to a World and take it to the extreme. This time, we'll be heading over to Katana World. While there are multiple unique builds in Katana outside of the standard Ninja and Skull Warriors decks (like Water), I've been more interested in trying to get Secret Swords to work. They cost a lot of gauge and they require a lot of forethought, but each Secret Sword is really worth its weight in gold. 3 damage and the ability to negate an effect is incredibly powerful - it all just comes down to how you build and prepare for it.

This deck not only tries to catch your opponent with Secret Swords, but also constantly reuse Secret Swords in a massive counterfest. To complement this heavy-resource strategy, the only other cards we're running are gauge-ramp and stall-related. Essentially, you burn your opponent down until they have no choice but to step on your Secret Sword landmine, where you kill them off anyways. Win-win.

I'm sure there are a lot of skeptics out there, but rest assured - I actually based this deck off a real deck I saw my friend playing with moderate success. By streamlining some of the numbers and adding more resource engines, I think I've got it to the point where it does what it wants to do best.