GenCon Buddyfight Tournament Report

I decided to play in my first ever Buddyfight tournament. Now, I play Buddyfight all the time, but it's always my decks vs. my decks, fighting baddies online (which I stopped, because TCO can't "hide" the cards I set for Hades Fall and Secret Formation), and fighting what are at best modified trial decks.

As some of you might know, I've actually judged more Buddyfight events than I've played. ~_~

That being said, after shaking down the Bushiroad booth at GenCon for four copies of Oborogenbu (I don't usually abuse my connections, but making a mandatory-to-play card an exclusive promo is kind of dumb), I decided that I wanted to play Katana World for the day. Katana World is easily my favorite World, despite Dungeon World being significantly stronger.

The tournament showing was pretty weak. Only 39 for Vanguard on Friday and only 13 for Buddyfight on Saturday. After getting the ever-living **** sacked out of me in Vanguard on Friday, I came to the Buddyfight tournament with absolutely no expectations of winning, considering 1: People from out of state who are hardcore Buddyfighters showed up and 2: This was literally my first ever Buddyfight tournament. To my great surprise, there was only one Dungeon World player, and they dropped after they lost in round 3, even though they had a solid chance to get second/third place. The prize support was a deckbox (manga-styled artwork, front is Gao and Drum attacking, back is chibi-Drum eating pudding, Kawaii as ****), mat (set 3 mat), and sleeves (Black/Gold World sleeves for Magic, Danger, and Dragon). Top 6 all got the same prize.

Decklist:

Flag - Katana World
Buddy - Blood Knife, Kimensai

Weapons - 3x Five Heavenly Swords, Onimaru (Switched to from Munechika before the tournament. With a plentiful amount of lifegain in the game, my win condition is no longer swing with 2-3 things with penetrate and counter their attack negate for the win.)

Impacts -
4x Secret Sword, Lethal Formation
2x Secret Sword, Star Crusher (I took out Moon Fang. I left it in my side deck, but the only impacts I ever see anymore are non-counterable, or are used early, like Ancient World's or another Secret Formation. Proved too unreliable for use.)

Spells (Defense) -
4x Demon Way, Oborogenbu (prioritized this over Art of Body Replacement to stop link attacks with an open center.)
3x Ninja Arts, Snake Gaze (Easily the best double-attack counter in the game. Generic enough to be useful against everything. Can stop Dungeon World shenanigans, and shuts down Seiger for an entire turn.)
2x Art of Body Replacement

Spells (Sets)
4x Art of Explosive Hades Fall
4x Return to the Underworld

Spells (Other)
2x Demon Way, Sakurafubuki (I won an entire game with this card on turn 1, since I stopped a Seiger from existing because of it.)
2x Clear Serenity
1x Demon Way, Geppakugiri (I abused this card greatly against Seiger, since I ran an extra copy in my sideboard for that match-up)

Size 1's
4x Blood Knife, Kimensai (I love this card.)
4x Evil in Heart, Yamigitsune (Obvious engine that makes everything work)
3x Steel Wall, Beheading Crab (Steel Wall, lel)
2x Undefeatable Setsujishi (This card won me more games through shenanigans than I thought possible)

Size 2's
4x Tempest, Garo-Oh (Sadly, this guy didn't shine for me that much. He's still strong, and paid for himself with Setsujishi.)

Size 3's
2x Wanderer, the Gold (Never once used this card, since I fought nothing but Dragon World and Ancient World. Well, I did use it against Ancient with Art of Explosive Hades Fall, but more about that down below.)

Sideboard:
3x Aftermath, Gagaku (This is how I chose to fight Seiger)
2x Art of Body Replacement (Swap in against Seiger, since Oboro is strictly worse if the opponent's deck doesn't Link Attack)
1x Five Heavenly Swords, Onimaru (Left this in if I wanted to swap for it to have 4 weapons, didn't end up using it.)
1x Demon Way, Geppakugiri (Teched in against Seiger)
1x Secret Sword, Moon Fang (Didn't end up using this.)
1x Clear Serenity (Setsujishi fixed my gauge incredibly well, I never needed to have a third Serenity)
1x Art of Item Blasting (I fought Dragon World, but one build was Beistand focused, and the other one was Thunder Knights without many equips. Didn't end up using it.)

I never bought any EB1, so I never bothered to get Half-Kills. Too much of a direct hate card, anyway. It feels cheesy putting them in against Seiger between rounds.

Round 1 - Vs. Ancient World (Seiger) - 2W 0L

Game 1 was exhausting. It grinded out until the 6th or 7th turn before I finally got a set-up. Ended up getting Lethal Formation out with 3 gauge. He swings in and puts me to 1. I swing in with Kimensai and another unit in a Link Attack against his center unit which had Lifelink 1 (Seiger died uneventfully without evolving before that). He had 3 life, so this was going to kill him. He countered it with Dragonlution, which I Secret Formationed for game.

Game 2 I teched in my Gagaku's, Arts, and took out a size 3 for it. I ended up drawing two Hades Falls and my now one size 3, and was facepalming. I still used Hades Fall, choosing size 2, and hilariously, he had no seiger. I blew up his size 2, and swung in for game on turn 3. His deck just fizzled really hard. Hades Fall on a lifelink unit hurts quite a bit.


Round 2 vs. Dragon World (Jackknife) 2W 1L

Game 1 drags out terribly. He ends up having a non-opened center and no defensive cards. If I top deck into any creature, I can bring back Kimensai and kill him, since he had 2 life. Draw was an Oborogenbu. Charged it and drew a Sakurafubuki (I had 2 life left). If I had held onto the Oborogenbu, then charged the Sakurafubuki, my top card was a Beheading Crab, so I could have won by waiting a turn, since my opponent had no size 1's. Oh well, I had no way of knowing that.

Game 2. I thought really hard about teching cards in, but decide not to. I start off with a Hades Fall -> Setsujishi -> Buddy call a Kimensai -> Swing with Kimensai for 2, move him to gauge to have enough for Lethal Formation. He cast a spell on his turn, which I countered, bringing him down to 5. I won after another two turns. It was a pretty clean win. Setsujishi into Lethal Formation secured about 3 victories for me over the course of the day, due to me also being able to use Hades Fall on turn 1.

Game 3 I played it the way I love playing Katana World. He had an open center. I link attacked with everything for 5 crit (Setsu, Crab, Yami). He had 5 life. He Green Dragon Shields, but I Sakurafubuki for game.


(Semi-Finals) Round 3 vs. Ancient World (Seiger) 2W 1L

Game 1 he went first. Normally, I like going second, but he chained off Creation, Legend, Rise and Fall, and set Dragonverse all on his first turn, along with playing Seiger. It was unfortunate that I had Serenity and two Lethal Formations. I set them on my first turn, then he never needed to cast a spell ever again. He only used ACT monsters after that. I got him to no soul on second form, but I wasn't able to secure victory.

Game 2, I teched in everything I teched in before. Again, I drew into Hades Fall and my one size 3, since I teched out my second copy again. All of my "meh". I set one and play a Return to the Underworld. He notices that I don't proc it on Seiger's first form and gets a really worried look on his face. He, knowing that I run size 3's, decided to destroy my Hades Fall over my Return to the Underworld. After seeing my Tempest Garo-Oh in soul, he was just like, "wat". Return to the Underworld won me the game, just like it's supposed to. I was still in a good position to win this game, regardless. I drew into another Hades Fall, abusing Setsujishi for free plusses from it later. Snake Gazed the guy two turns in a row, so his Seiger was literally doing nothing for those two turns.

Game 3, I didn't tech in the second grade 3 to hit it. I mean, odds are low that I draw it, right? Right. I don't see it. I set Hades Fall, choosing my 3. He never sees Seiger this entire game. Can't complain, since I end up winning for it.


(Finals) Round 4 vs. Dragon World (Thunder Knights) 2W 0L

Game 1 I should have lost. It went down to the wire at the very end. I had 2 life left, and he had no creatures out. I stopped his weapon attack that was going to win the game for him, but he had Thunder Formation and 4 gauge. I had a Snake Gaze in hand, and could account for one monster attack. He top decks two 2 critical creatures. I was thinking to myself, "Well, I'm ****ed." He swings his first creature into my Yamigitsune. I blink. It registers that he just messed up, and I immediately respond by playing Snake Gaze on his other creature. He asks how much life I have left. I say, "1." He begins facepalming. I swing for game next turn.

Game 2 was a good game for me. I did my Hades Fall -> Kimensai -> Setsujishi -> Lethal Formation Wombo combo, since I went first. I secured too large of an advantage and snowballed the game pretty hard, winning the tournament. My penetrate was nullifying his advantages. He kept misplaying by using cards that specified that you need an open center to use, and not using them before battle phase started/while he was moving his creatures to center.

He was the only one smart enough to cast a defensive spell when I had out a Lethal Formationed when I had 2 gauge during my battlephase (and used Setsujishi to move Kimensai to the gauge after that so he couldn't cast on his turn). I wasn't super worried about him stopping one attack, though.

All-in-all, I noticed a few things.

1. I'm the only person with a common buddy. Everyone else had BR Jackknife, Thunder Drum, or Seiger that I played.

2. Everyone kept misplaying. I didn't really mess anything up, so I was able to secure large advantages over my opponents that way.

3. Seiger seems inconsistent. That pay 2 gauge to get Seiger promo seems like it might be the juice they need to make the deck function. I haven't bothered to build the deck, so this was my first time encountering it. It wasn't that difficult to tackle, even without half-kills.


Not too much else to report, other than, "I had a blast" and that a bunch of people at my locals are playing now, so hopefully I can keep entering more than yearly tournaments.