Life break

      Life break X is an acronym for the official wording "When your life is X or less". Most of the times life breaks are put on spells and they simply cannot be activated if you don't meet the condition.
       The most famous spells with Life break are Dragonic grimoire and Abyss symphony which both have their own clones.
        What do they mean to the game, and how should to play around it ?




       For this article, we will use Abyss symphony as example (Life break 6, 1 gauge, draw 2).
       The reason why Abyss symphony cannot be played at 4 while Nice one! MUST be maxed out is the life break. Not only you cannot use it's effect while you have more than 6 lifes, but until you use it, this card is a dead weight in your hand. It is a temporary -1.
        This is why reaching the life break is a big deal : If you have 5 cards which includes one Abyss Symphony that you cannot play, you only have 4 playables cards. If you have 5 cards which includes one Abyss Symphony that you can play, you have 6 playables cards.
       The difference between life breaking and not life breaking is very big. This is why, up to a certain point, you should get to the life break as fast as possible.

How to reach the life break ?

  -Self burn
      Lots of decks have a form of self burn. You can forget to change Gungnir by Pwidren by purpose
to burn youself, Purgatory knight forever, Sunfist... The list goes on and one. And if your archetype doesn't have it's own way to burn itself, with Count dawn, every deck has at least one card to self burn.

-Delaying buddycall
        Doesn't this hapens to you when you Buddycall turn , and
turn 1, your opponent hits you two times for 2 damages. You are now with 7 lifes and you wished you didn't take the buddygift. It is very frequently rewarding to not take your buddygift and wait until you already used your Abyss symphony or you drop to 5 lifes to take it.
      But you need effects to search your Buddy or recycle it. Otherwise you are betting your buddygift that you will draw one off the 3 remainings copies. This is also why you need to choose your Buddy wisely. Let's use the example of the Star deck.If you want to use Zlatorog as your Buddy (which is interesting because it won't hint that you are playing Stars). But if you do, you won't be able to delay your buddycall. If you choose Moon Celestial, Selene, after you already call her once you will still have the 3 remainings Selene, 4 Cassiopeia, 4 Starfall night and 4 Nemea to summon her a second time.
     Here is another example : Hunter Serger uses March braver as his buddy in the deck Brave Machine Kaizerion.

Counter play, how to avoid that your opponent get his life break ?

- Attacking the monsters
         Against decks with low draw power other than his Abyss symphony clone, this is frequently the solution. If you destroy all his monsters, your opponent will run out of options. And he will have to pass a turn without attacking (or attacking once, with the weapon).

- Hold your attack.
           Dealing 2 damages is meaningfull. One damage... Not so much. Especially when you compare to the restriction your opponent gets if he doesn't reach his life break. So if your opponent only has 7 lifes and you only have a 1 critical attack left, not attacking your opponent to avoid the life break is very strong. Check that your opponent doesn't have self burn. If he does, it would be wasting a damage to hold your attack and then see the opponent reach the life break by himself.


- All at once.
          In decks playing an impact, let's say crimson. Your opponent has 8 lifes. You can link attack for 4. If your oponent responds, he won't get his life break. If he doesn't, you Gigrantic crusher and seal the game. Yes more often than not, it is a bad idea, but against Kaizerion it is important since it relies on
Bird Deity, Sabird to increase it's offense.

    To close the article, keep in mind that this doesn't apply to every decks. Worlds like Magic world and Ancient world don't have life break.

       That's all for now ! I hope you learned from it, don't hesitate to commentate, and until next time : raise your flag... please.