Judgement! - Monsters as Spells

Ah, it's been quite a while since I wrote a real math article. I feel my fingers are out of practice...meh.

Today we'll be talking about the concept of using monsters as spells. After all, there actually is no distinction between the two cards in any sense whatsoever. Cards are cards whether they're on the field or in the hand. The idea that "spells" are different than "monsters" is simply something that the game determines as a way to differentiate how cards can be used according to the game state.

Buddyfight Math - Vanilla Flavored

Who likes vanilla ice cream?

I know that the word "vanilla" itself has a lot of different meanings in different contexts and that some people don't like using the word in TCG for various reasons. Unfortunately, habit is hard to overcome and the term has firmly stuck around multiple TCGs and even other games in general. Especially for me. I'm particularly fond of the term because it sounds kinda fluffy. Don't judge.

Basically, we'll take the time to revisit my calculations for vanilla stats in Buddyfight because there's a better way to do them that also sheds some light on Bushiroad's philosophy regarding the game. Ready for another math journey?

Buddyfight Math - Keywords and Direct Damage

We've gone through the basic card advantage equation and established the balance at 1 card = 2 life/damage = 2 gauge. Now there are just two missing pieces of this all-encompassing mathematical law: (keyword) abilities and stats. Oh, and direct damage.

We've already covered power and defense in a different article, so let's take the time now to go over the (keyword) abilities in the game so far, how good they are, and how much they are worth.

Buddyfight Math - Magic Numbers

I generally dislike having disagreements with readers. I mean, there's nothing wrong with flame wars in the comments (and they bring more views per day!) but I generally want to be correct and on good terms with my viewerbase. So instead of just telling you guys the results of my calculations and hypotheses, it's much easier just to go through the process with you in the article. No complaints, right?

You know it's important
when the freaking flavor
text is telling you it

This article will be discussing the idea of "Magic Numbers", certain power/defense thresholds that play a pivotal part in the competitive meta. I'm pretty sure ALL collectible card games have Magic Numbers. Yugioh uses (or once used, it's totally just all over the place now) a 2000-2500-3000 attack ratio as their power limits, with 1700-1900 being the zone for most 4 star beaters. Pokemon has Magic HP numbers, 170 HP for most EX Pokemon and 230 for their Mega Evolutions. Vanguard is 11K defense and 13K hamburgers, which becomes 16K and 18K hate columns for aggression. Weiss Schwarz has vanilla power levels for each Level in the order of 3000-5500/7000-8500/9000 based on Stock, with most Level 3's being 10000 and not really mattering since you're going to be cheesing for win anyways.

Buddyfight Math - Choosing your Buddy and Counting Cards

What would Future Card Buddyfight! be without the ability to designate that one special card to be your one and only buddy?

As kiddy as this may sound, choosing your Buddy is actually quite a serious and important decision for your game. Not only does it mandate which card you must run at 4 copies, but it also dictates for both you and your opponent exactly what kind of grand strategy you are aiming to employ...usually. There's the idea of faking out your opponent with an awkward Buddy choice, which has its pros and cons.

This article will also be a good place to discuss just how often you should expect to draw into your Buddy and will cover some general basics about card counting that apparently nobody quite understands, so if you were thinking that a Buddy discussion was too simple for you then I'm throwing you a bone here. Fetch.

Buddyfight Math - Card Advantage

Now that Ancient World has been released with the advent of Immortal Entities, I can finally present a full-fledged article on the math of Future Card Buddyfight.

For those of you who just want to know the results, here they are:

tl;dr 1 card in hand = 1 card on the field = 2 cards in gauge = 2 life = 2 damage

Now that you know, you can start making decks that are actual advantage-based instead of whatever you felt like running. But most people probably had something similar in mind to this as they were building decks. At least Bushiroad did.

For those of you who want to know the entire process that went into this, then here we go!