The buddy mechanic on a next level

   So far, there were only three strategyc points that would affect the decision of your buddy : 

1. It is a four-of in any match up, and is a card that can be played at anytime
2. Ultimate buddy shenanigans
3. And finally how easily you can acces to this card. For instance you can search drum with form a party, he is a better buddy than a Bladewing phoenix in hybrid decks.

    But now a fourth reason might come into play. Reason that may push the buddycall to another level.

     I should not take credits for figuring that out : Hunter serge should. In his weekly update, he pointed that out : tengu, is an angle king, so it can only be played at one (except Dragon world). But Danger can play him at 2 thanks to My Buddy.
    You may not understand right now, but don't worry. I will explain it, and analyse what it brings. So sits tight, because this article will be long.

     First of, i should remember how Buddycall works : you place your monster from your hand the buddy zone tapped, and the monster who was previously on your buddy zone enters the field. THIS IS HOW IT WORKS. You DONT rest or flip your monster in your buddy zone and call the monster from your hand to the field.

     This is how the card "my buddy" works : you have cerberus as your buddy, and my buddy in your hand.  You place my buddy in your buddy zone and call the cerberus on the field.

    So far, the card my buddy has not been of any uses because it would take one spot of your buddy. But now that we have angle kings which are cards that cannot be played at 4, My Buddy can now be a thing.

    For this article,  we will use Tenbu to refear to "Angle king" because ot is the only angle king so far, and even though Danger and Dragon world are the only worlds who own a my buddy, we will suppose every worlds does.

     What should you do ? Have tenbu as your buddy, a "my buddy" in your deck. and one tenbu in your deck as if ir was a non-buddy monster. When you draw my buddy, you buddycall with it and call the tenbu from your buddy zone.
    This works as a second tenbu which dodges the limit to one of the angle kings.

    Also keep in mind that unless you desperatly need the one life from the buddy gift, you musnt call with the original tenbu : you need to keep the my buddy in your deck alive.

   Of course there is a problem with that : if you use this technique you can pretty much say byebye to your buddy gift. Because you now only have 1 monster instead of four to buddycall.

    Is losing the buddy gift important?  You lose one life. This life can be game changing or totally useless.

• You win with 10 lifes => useless
• You have 2 lifes and the opponent hits you for 3 => useless
  But,
• You survive with one life and you are able to attempt the finishing blow on the next turn => game changing
• You end up with 5 lifes and you are out of range of a Gargantua punisher => game changing

   This is where playtest comes into play : every times you win, ask yourself if the  buddy gift changed the issue of the game. And you will mathematically know how important buddycall is.
   My feeling so far, is that buddygift is something you can get away without, but that you dont want to loose for nothing.

   " So you told me i could do well without. But is that second tenbu really valueable ?"
    In term of quality advantage,  yes. Quality advantage is to compare the effectiveness of two ressources. You can have three vanillas on the field, if i have tenbu, i would call that and clean up. Instead of drawing monster X, you have tenbu who gives you a better grasp over the game.
    If Tenbu is gamebreaking, and seal the game on its own, bumping it to 2 can increase your win-rate by a lot.

    To end up, this is only food for though and  you should remeber that can decide to lose a ressource (one life) for some quality advantage ( having a second tenbu ). Now it is up to you to determin what you value the most.
     The answer may simply be "buddygift is actually more important", and nothing will change in the buddyfight community. But if you want to be the best and increase your chance of winning even by the slightliest, ask yourself the question.

Until next time,
Raise your flag, please.