Battle booster : why, how to play and counters

     Out of all the clone cards, the battle booster (+3/+3 counterattack) is by far the one that is cloned the most. It is also the trickiest one : it has a lot of potential, but also counterplays.

    If your monster is attacked by your opponent monster, it usually resolves with you loosing the monster or the spell used to cancel the attack which is a -1 in term of card advantage.
When you use a battle booster, you loose the spell, but your monster survives, and your opponent looses his monster in retaliation, which is a 0 in card advantage.
    Your battle booster changed the -1 of the attack in a wash.
     It makes a +1. This is one of the most powerful counter in the game.

     Looking with this point of view, why isn't it a mandatory x4 in every decks ? This is beacause of its two major weaknesses.
    The first one, is that it cannot assure your monster will survive. Yes 3k defensd is a lot, but sometimes your opponent will just attack with a card that have much more power than your defense and they are multiple counterplays to this ; whereas shields and  Dragobond-likes have next to no counterplays (and most of them also deal with battle boosters).

    If you need your monster to survive no matter what, then battle boosters aren't the best candidates for that.

     The second (and major) issue is that it is totally useless if your monsters aren't attacked.
     In buddyfight, games where your opponent don't even attack a monster once is very possible. For instance he can just destroy your center with effect and keep attacking you. Then there is nothing you battle booster can do.

     Those reasons are why most of the time, you cannot afford to play too much, as you need room for others and more versatile counters.

     And because of how few battle boosters you can play, they become rare ressources that must be played at the most optimal timing.

      Now, lets find out how to play around them.

     The first trick is pretty well know : attack with your item first. As items aren't affected by counterattack, it take down the battle booster to a simple shied.

    But keep in mind other counters your opponent may have. In katana world, Gepakkugiri is usually more frequent than the battle booster.  Attacking with the monster first  is probably the best solution. 

     Another possibility that is very well known is link attacking. If you make sure the opposit monster wont survive, you don't need to worry about counter attack. The downside is that you only create a +1, had you single attacked twice, you could create a +2.

     Before link attacking to avoid the battle booster, ask yourself those questions  : how much do you need to out the opposit monster ? If it is Omnidrum then yes that's important.  If it is Crimson omni drum, then not as much.

     Is it really problematic if your monster get counterattacked ? It is not really important if Great fairy Sylph dies. It is much more if it is Demios.

    Following the previous possibility, you cand send your less important monsters first, as said before, it is not important if you loose Sylph, she already did her job.

     Finally, you can fight fire with fire. Your opponent used his battle booster, you can use yours to "nullify" the stat boost. Cards like wrath of dragon are also particulary good options for that.

     Here are 5 tricks that can be used in (almost) any decks.

There is still a lot to say about this and I will probably make a folllow up article for more situational plays.
     I hope this article was useful for you.

Until next time,
raise your flag...
Please.

The Dragoenergy case. That is a bad move from Bushiroad, but in order to justify a move Gao made during an episode, they decided to errata Dragoenergy.
It now adds "You can activate multiple Dragoenergy at the same time".
Basically, when you decide to activate Dragoenergy during the battle, you can decide to use 1,2, 3 or 4 Dragoenergy from your hand at the same time.
You CANNOT cast one dragoenergy, wait for the opponent to answer with his own battle booster, and then cast a second Dragoenergy.
This additionnal line doesn't exist on any others battle boosters.