Buddyfight: Jackknife Gold Ritter Deck

The group I play cards with is weird. They can't seem to stay in a single card game to play.

Anyway, we've recently gotten back into Buddyfight (which we played during its first release).
The thing I dislike most about the game is its name more than anything actually.
It is, in my opinion, the worst mashed up name one could ever come up with for a card game.
It irks me just thinking about that because they could have come up with something much better and it would probably have a more positive response.

Putting aside from the fact that it is primarily designed as a cardgame directed at kids, a game is a game and there is no discrimination on that point from me because I love games in general.
The only thing that prevents me from playing a game is if the game is filled with lolis and almost fully naked girls because I obviously shouldn't and cannot afford to be caught playing those type of games and there is no lack of games in the world that I would have to end up in the state of having to play one of those.

I chose the Jackknife Gold Ritter deck to use because I like how it fundamentally changes the way the game is played and I like how there is a promo art of the Green Dragon Shield (that is not out yet).

While my deck is almost there, the below is the build I want to ultimately end up at (I am 2 cards away):

Buddy: Jackknife Dragon
4 Jackknife Dragon
4 Jackknife Burnenergy
4 Jackknife Thunderstorm
4 Jackknife "Berserker"
3 Jackknife Gold Ritter
4 Jackknife Braveheart
4 Jackknife Gift
4 Blue Dragon Shield
4 Green Dragon Shield
2 Flying Dragon Shield
2 White Dragon Shield
2 Gargantua Punisher
2 Calvary Academy
2 Dragonic Grimoire
2 Dragonic Charge
1 Dragoenergy
1 Day of the Dragon
1 Dragogenius

It took me awhile to understand how to build the Jackknife Gold Ritter deck because most references I looked at ran less Jackknife Berserker or Braveheart and they all seem happy with it.
The numbers are simple to understand once the reasoning behind them is established.

Firstly, the base Jackknife Dragon has to be maxed out so that the climbing can start.
Hence, 4 Jackknife dragon, 4 Jackknife Berserker and 4 Jacknife Braveheart is essential because everything starts from there.
At a 12 base count, the odds of it showing up in the starting hand is 82.6%.
At a 8 base count, the odds of it showing up drops to 66.9% which is essentially 1 less game per 10.

Jackknife Braveheart is easily replaced by Jackknife Burnenergy which turns into a net -0 on the gauge with 1 extra soul so every Jacknife Braveheart is equivalent to having an extra soul.
In addition, it can be used to search for Jackknife Gift to find Jackknife Gold Ritter which would be at an effective count of 11.
For what Braveheart does to the entire integrity of the deck, I cannot fathom how people reach any numbers less than the full 4 copies.

Jackknife Braveheart and Jackknife Burnenergy are the core enablers to the strategy which needs gauge and a specific life total to go off.

Gold Ritter is at a count of 3 to prevent games where all the ritters are in the gauge and therefore unusable. At that point, the game ends because this Jackknife build can only make one attack per turn since it neither runs any grade 1s nor does it run any equipment apart from Gold Ritter.

Other than the Blue and Green Shields I suppose the rest are all variable.
White Dragon Shield is to help against impacts and Flying Dragon Shield is to help against attacks that cannot be nullified.

I use Gargantua Punisher over Victory Slash because I want to close games with more certainty.
Dragonic Charge helps that and the building up to Gold Ritter.
Calvary Academy pushes Gold Ritter out of the 10k mark so that it is more protected than it would be otherwise and 10k is a sweet spot which most people can reach comfortably.
It moves out of a Drill Bunker range and also out of a natural Excalibur to force it to link rather than comes straight.

Playing it is no rocket science but it plays a little differently from a normal deck. You start by charging a spare Jackknife so that you can have one in the discard to use Jackknife Gift on. Otherwise, it will come down to whether or not you manage to burn any gauge with a Jackknife in it to use the gift. Gold Ritter itself needs 2 gauge so the gauge count is very important as you might need more gauge at times to get to Gold Ritter. If a Jackknife comes down to stay and it is not well protected, it might become very difficult to add enough soul to it on the following turn. It does not really work as a lone attacker because it does too little and there is only one attack because of how there only is Jackknife Dragons in the deck and no size 1s so Gold Ritter is really a priority.

All in all, it is a very interesting deck that warps the way the game is played. I look forward to using the alternate art Green Dragon Shields. =)

How to block game invites on Facebook (iphone)

It's been annoying that people keep spamming Pirate King invites so I went to figure out how to stop those. So here are the 5 steps to stop all that nonsense.

1) On the iphone app, tap the "More" button at the bottom.

2) Tap on "Settings".

 3) Tap on "Notifications".

4) Tap on "Mobile Push".

5) Scroll down to find "Application Requests" and "Application Invites" and uncheck those.

Voila.

Final Fantasy VII G-Bike

Recently, Square Enix released a new smartphone game. Final Fantasy VII G-Bike, based on one of the mini games that was in the original FFVII. It's the mini game where you had to guard the little van if you can recall. Otherwise, you could go back to the gold saucer to play it. I think you can find it there.

Anyway, it's available on the Japanese apple store. I don't use Android so I cannot tell if it's ENG/JPN location protected there too. If you need the official link, it's http://www.jp.square-enix.com/ff7_gbike/  .

(You can make a Japanese app store account by registering a Japanese address (take a shop address or just google map a random place).

You go around using Cloud on his bike.

This game is kinda like those running games where you have to jump over stuff, go under stuff, attack enemies. It's has the best graphics for that genre though. The basic gameplay is still just that.

You get to add a support character (once per 30 mins, sometimes you get to use the character again so I don't know the exact logic yet). Tifa shows up when you fight a boss to do FinalHeaven for a little more damage at the end of your limit break sequence.

You get to see the limit breaks only when you fight bosses and the limit break is determined by the weapon you hold. So far I've seen BladeBeam (Buster Blade), Finishing Touch (Butterfly Edge/Murasame) and Meteorain (limited boss mission).

 If you have the support character, the limit break transits into another by that character (currently only Tifa)

Tifa is all ready to give a good punch.

BAM!

TIFA!!! <3

Their first limited edition Boss mission has Bahamut in it. (The very first you summoned in FFVII).

You can get the limited edition Bahamut bike using the parts. It's kinda late if you start now...

His intro scene.

MEGAFLARE!!!

Getting punched by Tifa~

You level up weapons/bikes using items (which you get from the end of a mission at the roulette).

I would advise against using the gems unless it's a rare item and it's just beside the one where you landed on.

After some time, I realized that what you need can be gotten easily from the missions that have it as the reward. If you hit 100 pts they put more of that on the slots so it becomes much easier to get that particular item.

It's still a game in its infant stages so it's a very good time to get into it. =)

I like how fast the points charge with time and it seems like the game would get better in time.
I'm a sucker for FF games with all the nostalgia (Currently playing FF Agito on the phone too).

Commander 2014 in Legacy Part 2

So I went down to my local cardshop last night and they had Commander 2014 singles.
I bought the below stuff and found another cool card - Malicious Affliction which could potentially take down 2x Tarmogoyfs.

I was deliberating on Dualcaster Mage and the red Planeswalker but I did not get them as I would not be likely to be playing anything along those lines in the near future. I'll try my luck online but it's very hard to find singles from these products because the reprinted cards are so much more easily accessible online and thus have very minimal resale value as compared to irl.

The key buy was the 2x Titania which I feel is half Primeval Titan and half Grave Titan in the same card and I think that it would be the card that would be able to bring me into 2015. I would probably be still working along the lines of BUG mid-ranged/control to find something that I like.

There was a BUG nic-fit (weird name like tin fins) deck that I am interested in running. The big mana fatties deck sounds good vs Miracles / Delvers.

Titania is very underrated. =)

Commander 2014 for Legacy

If I had to pick 10 cards to get from the commander 2014 boxed set, I would get these 10 cards.

In specific numbers, if I had the money, I would get:

4x Daretti

He's a 1 card engine in itself but you'd probably be playing Goblin Welder and Dack Faden.
4cc Planeswalkers are usually played at the bare minimal, apart from Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Control Slaver sounds fun.

3x Contamination Priests
Sideboard card that you can't really play too many of. 3 is a good number to have between the main and the side. I guess it singlehandedly beats Sneak and Show and Reanimator but 4 seems excessive.

2x Spoils of Blood

I have no idea where this would go but it looks like it does something.

2x Song of the Dryad

Maelstrom Pulse exists so this could be a liability. 2 is more than enough for a straight up answer card.

3x Dualcaster Mage
I'm not convinced that Fork is needed but we've played similar cards that we would never have just because they have creature bodies. The 1RR cost is the biggest problem but it's better to get this earlier than later.

2x Wake of the Dead

The ability to reanimate more than 1 guy at eot is very powerful. I don't see this replacing stuff but it's definitely interesting.

1x Ob Nixilis

This is for sure a good buy at 1x. The -2 ability is going to be very strong.

(Like vs Miracles who can't really counterbalance lock it) You would almost never need more than 1.

2x Titania

This is Primeval Titan + Grave Titan in a card. I'm sold. With its cost, I'd be comfortable playing 2x easily but it's a very high potential card. I'd pick up more since it's so cheap at the moment.

1x Nahiri

I'd play Elspeth so I'd consider this too. The Batterskull reanimating upside makes it worth thinking about. I don't see more than 1 ever needed like Ob Nixilis but I'd get that 1x first.

2x Intellectual Offer
This is like a mini Time Spiral that could go into a High Tide deck to untap Candelabras...
(A little pushing it)
Or maybe the same Dack Faden deck with Welders and Notion Thief?

Vanguard G needs to change

As a follower of the Vanguard animated series from its beginnings, it is sad to say that despite the graphics and effects being much better in this new season, the card game aspect of the show is lost in its entirety. No doubt everything looks much smoother and impressive, the move away from a game narration has kicked it down in the ranks of my mind of card game animation.
To be fair, I'm comparing Vanguard G to its past seasons, Yu-Gi-Oh (which I watch every now and then), Buddyfight and Duel Masters (which I sparsely peek into).

Yu-Gi-Oh has been a very odd game to watch because everyone seems to have their own very specific cards (that look very sidelined for most random characters) and the cards that show up in the main characters' decks have very odd conditional effects (that do not make sense generally, given their incredibly deep cardpool). I do not particularly enjoy their side character duels but it can be quite interesting when they have their big important games. I do not play the game so I can't really guess how some of what they do translate to real life (like how Stardust Dragon became its next form) or how Action cards from the current season work.

Across the seasons, I am not a fan of random powerful cards being pulled out of thin air where no one (even the user) knows what is being played and there has always been a good number of it.
I recall an episode where Yuma had a card which the opponent had a card that directly opposed the card he had (the rank up magic) and he just changed it to an altogether different card and used it on the spot. That's outright cheating.

Still, as a cardgame narration animation, it is one of the best there is,

Duel Masters, is a different ball game altogether with its direction all the while being targeted at a very different crowd with its very rough, inelegant style.
The current season is rather crude visually but it does bring out what the game is in its narration.
I couldn't really bring myself to follow it because what I understand of the game in its impressions is that it is much more explosive than what the show portrays it to be and it falls below that expectations and the show itself does not appeal to me.

Then, there is Buddyfight which came after Vanguard which was probably Bushiroad's attempt to make a better game that is more like MTG while using its prior experiences from its other games.
The game itself is good to play with it being between MTG and VG in terms of gameplay and the show is very simple to understand when they do actually go through the full motion of everything.
The only things I dislike about the game is the name itself and the actual mechanics of a buddy which simply adds a life. I would have thought that it would be like a commander - being able to call out at least once from where it sits but it is only there to make you obtain a 5th copy, a design space that I feel is utterly wasted.
The story is decent enough to want to carry on watching and there is enough weight in the various worlds that no one is outright the loser (although there is one obvious winner in terms of support).

As much as I do not actively have the desire to chase it because of a lack of a draw towards it, it is honestly a good show which translates the actual game well.

And after a full circle, I will talk about Vanguard,
The previous seasons were ok with a very skewed representation of the flagship card, Blaster Blade which the show made to be the most awesome card in its universe with its uber rareness which I cannot really comprehend. (This probably ended up killing Aichi as the main character once they figured that there was no way they could keep up eternally with there only being 1x Blaster Blade in the entire series)
Other than that, the animation showcased the various clans in a fine pace, probably only really bogged down by the actual card design of the clans which was not done well through its infant stages and the clans were easily bashed by plot armor to skew the actual allure of the clans. Comparatively, Buddyfight does much better at maintaining power and the allure of each clan, probably because of how it could learn from its predecessor.
I had very little respect for the dinosaur clan or the spike brothers to the point where when I saw those in the DS game, I would have some form of disgust if I had lost to them versus the other more respectable clans whereby I would just be plain annoyed.
Story-wise, Vanguard does a pretty bad job.
I can't say anything about the introduction of the cheaty psyqualia (which is indeed a very true way to play a high level game - by knowing what matters and having an sculpted image of how to win the critical points of the game).
But its true "badness" comes from how the story flows to the next season.
From MLB being changed to a Gold Paladin starter with no one actually remembering the "old clans" to the Legion season where the world resets yet again, I think this show is by far the most accepted far-fetchedness I have ever seen where nothing truly makes sense if you would look back and think about it. It has gone through a lot of gimmicks like going around Asia and the whole Reverse arc but other than the occasional "show card and create an explosion", it was generally successful in bringing out the next set and generating hype for the game.
From a gameplay standpoint, it does a decent job in terms of showing what happens and this is not easy since there could technically be 6 different things in play and they can't really describe each of them.

Now there is Vanguard G, the newest iteration of the series which makes zero effort to let you understand the game. The general story is ok, as with most card game animations, with schooling kids going through their daily lives being a decent way to get through.
The graphics are a big improvement to the previous seasons.
However, the card game narration is totally lost in the midst of the smoothness of the animation.
If I had wanted to watch plain action, I would watch Gundam Tri Fighters which does a better job.
I can't stomach watching a card game animation with no name drops, no ability explanation whatsoever and the characters not attempting to play the game properly (Chrono had G3s and did not attempt to stride in the last episode? What's up with that?!? Chronojet dragon doesn't even do anything like that.). Episode 1, we see the introductions and we don't get much information as to what the cards do and one stride unit does 3 damage off the bat to close the game. Episode 2, we see some male Oracle Think Tank units, no names, no abilities, game ends. Episode 3, we only see the new legion unit from the other side killing 2 RGs and no other real explanation of anything other than a few name drops and kagero retire skills.
If they go on like this, I will really hate this season.
No doubt I would watch it because I follow the game now but I am truly unsatisfied with it as it is.
I don't know why they are doing it like this, if only to tease you perhaps, but it does not generate any hype for the upcoming sets whatsoever and it does not even help anyone watching to understand what is going on in the game. For its purpose of being a card game animation, I'd rank it dead bottom.

Rant over. I hope they really get their act together.

VG: Gear Chronicle is over powered

With the leaks from the latest monthly bushiroad, we see more of the new Gear Chronicle clan (and a bunch of other clans).
From there, we see that they have a whole frigging FAMILY OF SILENT TOMS.

G2: sb 2 to activate Silent Tom.
G3: gb1, cb1 to activate Silent Tom

G-unit: CB1, face up another copy of itself, Silent Tom, if there are 2 or more faced up cards in your G-zone +1 crit

I'm not sure if they have been testing their cards but the Silent Tom effect of (cannot be guarded by G0s) essentially means that if you intend to guard an attack, you're throwing at least 2 cards at any one point. This effect in Oracle Think Tank was unique to Silent Tom who had to be boosted by a 8k vanilla to be able to utilize properly and was later on brought back on the g4 Nouvelle Vague which was also difficult to guard against. 

And now they have a whole Silent Tom clan? Sign me up. I don't see how one could lose if you're attacking with triple Silent Tom when the opponent is at 5 damage. 3x perfect guard? BS much.