User blog:RaijinSenshi19/Buddyfight Daily Decklist Development - The Imposing Super Sun Dragon

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"Dragon World. Star Dragon World. Darkness Dragon World. A card that spans all three worlds have been created! A Triple Card!"

No matter how you look at it, be it from a casual, competitve, game-centric or anime-centric viewpoint, the introduction of Super Sun Dragon, Balle Soleil is without a doubt impactful. A strong and imposing dragon that not only gives you many different playstyles to pick from, but also a multitude of different varriations of said builds.

And in the spirit of Christmas, i am going to be giving you all my own little customized gift, in the form of having this article feature no less than FOUR different decklists for this dragon.

So guys, I hope you are ready. Strap yourselves in, because we have a bit of ground to cover.

And do remember, all decklists are up for usage if you want, and you can make whatever edits you want to them, to suit your playstyle and needs.

The Sun Shines Upon Us
Look at little Bal. So cute and innocent.

Well, that is in the past, because he has grown into a terryfing monster of a dragon, which not only brought some actual Size 3 support to Dragon World, but he might as well made it the definitive Dragon World deck to play, depending on future support.

Size 3 Sun Dragons have slowly been building themselves up, as every set seemed to include at least one incredibly powerful Size 3 monsters for them, leading up to the introduction of Balle Soleil, and thus the creation of this actual deck type.

Yes, Dragon Force is not in the deck for obvious reasons. All of you anime fans might be a bit disappointed by that, but Balle Soleil just dont function by using the Dragon Force cards we have at the moment.

We are aiming to abuse our Size 3 Sun Dragons to their fullest, and to do that, we make sure that our selection include monsters that are at least a bit sticky, by using their Soulguard. Your overall winning image is simple too: Use your item and your Size 3 to smash the opponent's face in as hard and fast as you can. You are also going to abuse destruction abilities so the opponent will have to pull out more resources to take you out. Balle Soleil and Zellhorus being the primary monsters you want to stay on if you can.

I guess now is a good time as others to state what truely makes Super Sun Dragon, Balle Soleil so good, and also the way you play it: You play it to the side instead of the center. The recent behind this is because Balle Soleil is an offensive and defensive card in one. The fact that it reduces all damage by one, will either force the opponent to deal with Balle Soleil's soul first, or they will Link Attack you directly so the 1-crit beaters can do damage, making your shields even more disruptive. Having a continuous damage reducer is incredibly strong, and the more soul-buffing we gain in the future, the stronger this deck is going to be. And to support it, we have the strong partners in Zellhorus, his impact form, and Second Helios, to back him up. All with soul and making the opponent chose between dealing with them or trying to beat you as fast as they can.

Size 3 decks needs more than just Size 3 monsters however. It's just natural to use Size 0 monsters to support them. Lavapick Dragon and Benetnasch being two Size 1s that can have their size reduced as long as you have a Size 3 out, making them both really good picks for the deck. Yes, even Benetnasch with his Armordragon attribute, because of his ability to add cards to the soul of your monsters at the cost of taking 1 damage. And since Balle Soleil reduces that damage, it means he is free with Balle Soleil. Lavapick Dragon meanwhile lets you pay 1 life when he enters the field to destroy a monster on the opponent's left our right, making it a valuable asset in a multitude of matchups. And it has two crits, just to put icing on the top.

As for actual Size 0s, we have Flarefang Dragon "SD", a really powerful monsters with the ability to once per turn draw you a card if the opponent's monster gets destroyed, making it really strong with either of the regular Size 3 monsters, and it can also have enough power to hit over smaller walls and defensive Ride/Transform decks and helps for monster clearing. A nice little combo involves calling Flarefang "SD", then calling Lavapick, destroy something, draw a card, and then call Balle Soleil using one of them as the base. It's good.

Count Dawn is here for obvious reasons. If you don't know why he is here, then you should look back to some older articles from Hundred.

Then we move onto spells. We have our trusty Sun Dragon Shield and the Blue Dragon Shield, and we are also playing Dragobond because that is the same broken spell it has always been and helps defending your dragons from abilities and not just attacks. Blessing of the Sun is our gauge accel which helps us to get out the big dragons and can even fuel Balle Soleil's ability.

Sun in the Darkness is a card that looks a bit iffy at first, but the thing is...it is actually a really usable card, even if you dont get the full effect. Even with just the draw, it is a free filter, and filter effects have always been usable to dig through the deck, even if just one card at the time. And lastly, Dragonic Grimoire, a card which I highly underestimate even to this day, with the ability to refresh your hand when you need it in the late game.

Items at this point are pretty self explanatory. Sun Fist, Balguard is too good an item, being able to avoid destruction by opposing effects, having good power and crits, and it can even function as a one-time Dragon Barrier for Sun Dragons (why are you making Gao drop this card, Bushiroad?). The last item can be anything at the time being, but I decided to run more gauge accel with Bal Knuckle Charge.

In the future, we will most likely revisit this deck, as it is strong, but it has a lot of room for improvement, especially when we get more forms of Balle Soleil.

Eclipsing the Sun
So hey, Edgelords, goths and emos alike, how does it feel, knowing that the protagonist is actually using a card belonging to your main world, for a change?

"Get out."

Well then! The Darkness Dragon World Balle Soleil deck is a bit all over the place and it lacks a bit of punshing power, but it goes for basicly the same idea, by getting your Sun Dragon, or the Size 3 partner, out as fast as possible and then smacking the opponent with both the item and the monster at your disposal, making it more of a wannabe deck than anything. But hey, Edgelords, am I right~?

So yeah, this is more of a toned down version of what the Dragon World deck was like, but adding some more twists to it. More-so in the fact we have a ton of gauge accel to make sure we can do everything we aim at doing.

Super Sun Dragon, Balle Soleil is there with the same tactic as we had earlier: Drop it on the side and then hit as hard as you can with both the item and your monster. To help with that tactic, we are also running Galnibael, who can also deal with opposing monsters due to his ability. However, it takes a bit of setup to get it, so just go with the beatdown tacts in the early game. You can end up milling some useful cards however.

The support line-up is a bit different his time around. Running Deboth and Vader is an interesting combo, as it lets you reuse whatever monster you want essentially, at the cost of gauge and some life, but like I stated earlier, we have a ton of gauge in this deck, if we get the right cards. Vong is a pseudo-Dragon Barrier, albeit at the cost of a life. I get that we should rather use Black Dragon Remade, but we need more monsters so wecan actually call out Balle Soleil. Black Wolf, Ulbha synnergizes very well with the battle phase destruction abilities, letting you either get the Quad-Formation by attacking with your item first, or provide a meat shield during the opponent's turn.

We are also running Abygale, "Deadly Oblivion" because it's a really good Impact Monster we can make use of with all the exess gauge, it can destroy Gauge Timer before the gauge actually goes to waste...but to be fair ,Abygale, and by extension Galnibael, can be interchanged with whatever card you feel replaces them better, or you rather want to run.

I will be honest: The items and spells leave me with something to desire. I am not sure if this is good, and it looks really bad...but I want to use it this way.

Black Cloth Blade is our reliable shield, while Black Dragon Shield protects us from taking damage as a pesudo-shield. We are also running Darkness Rune because it's too good a spell, having three different abilities depending on what you actually need. Sun in the Darkness, see above, same reasons apply here. Noble Sacrifice is there to get more millage out of Ulbha and it can even pop Death Gauge Timer, our gauge accelerator before the negative ability kicks in. And yeah, it heals you too, which you will propably need with all the life payment this deck actually has.

Our items consist of Blacknuckle with it's high critical power and the additional gauge boost if it were to damage the opponent, and also Bloody Fate, one of the most mazing items ever created in this game, which can draw you cards, making the opponent having to pick beween taking the 1-damage ping and letting you draw, or wasting a shield on it. Pretty good stuff.

The Black Dragon varriant of Balle Soleil is the one that lacks the most focus of all the varriants. But that is not the fault of Soleil, its just the world itself, and I hope Bushiroad sees this and does something about it.

Artificial Futuristic Sunlight
Huh, even when fully grown up, Bal still seeks help from Jack...

You basicly combine some aspects of the Jackknife Bonds deck and just cater it more to Balle Soleil by changing out your item line-up and running less cards that puts thing in the drop zone, because that does not help Balle Soleil in the slightest.

Again, this deck is very experimental and I encourage anyone who wants to play Balle Soleil in Star Dragon World, to try as many possible combinations as possible, until you find a decklist and strategy of additional Size 3s and likewise that clicks with you.

So this is the first Balle Soleil decklist that has an additional closed-center style of play, because that is just how Star Dragon of Bonds, Jackknife operates. Both cards are incredible powerful Size 3s and both can function as their own win condition. Basicly, as long as you get either of these out, you are good to go.

The Size 0 support consists of Eliminator, Torus, which as we have seen with Zodiac, is a very strong little monster. Having Soulguard and two crits makes Torus pretty much a must-have in a lot of, if not all, Size 3 Neodragon decks that exist. We are also running Sphere Cemetery, Star Remnant because he helps calling out our big guys more easily by reducing the cost, so we can keep our gauge up for Balle Soleil and our additional win condition.

The Dragonarms we are running consists of Meteorarms, Pisca-Pisca, for additional gauge boosting, Garbel Anchor for that nasty spell nullification, Artiliger because murdering Soulguard walls is fun, and we also have Dragoneraser, Comatter in here, just for the option of Penetrate on our Size 3 monsters, which can make Balle Soleil even more destructive. (Again, I am still testing stuff out, so don't freak out about these picks)

Then we have our line-up of spells. Sonic Move, because we can actually use that with Balle Soleil, and then Future Astrology, because we just cant have enough card draw, right? Mars Barrier and Illusion of the Void Deity are additional defensive spells both for us and our monsters, because the longer we stay alive, the bigger our chances of winning becomes.

Scramble Crossnize is a fun little thing to run. Imagine the opponent got Soleil down to no-soul, and then attacks you with their 1-crit beater? Scramble Crossnize, now the damage is reduced again. It would be much more useful if Space Elevator was in the deck, but I am not sure how to build this deck entirely yet. Last spell we have is Planet Memory, because like all Dragonic Grimoire clones, they turn out to be much better than initially thought.

Our items consist of gauge chargers in the form of Leg Blade, Rejecter and Star Magnum, Dragnapulse, which can also draw you a card. Both items hit just as hard and can deal with the same level of walls. They are highly valuable items for the deck, especially when Balle Soleil can completely destroy a wall deck with all this gauge.



And yes....we are running Radiant Punisher!! in this deck.

I know this is a very unpopular opinion, as running the Punishers feels really cheap because of all the victories you can cheese out, but in this deck, having this burst fo damage is actually something you need and can abuse.

I honestly feel like the deck lacked some spunk and power, so...added this because it can actually clinch games for you. Now, this means the deck ends up at 55 cards, but I hope all the gauge charging and card draw makes it acceptable, as it does thin your deck.

Star Dragon World Balle Soleil is the deck that would be able to abuse Balle Soleil the most, but the problem is to build the deck correctly. We will surely revisit this deck sometime in the future as well.

Keikaku Dori Doragon
Let's not forget about our general smuglord player, huh? Dragon Zwei sports a lot of potential to make Balle Soleil shine and destroy the opposing foe. Not to mention that Balle Soleil makes the most out of the high lifecount, by neglecting the opponent from actually beating you down in the form of that damage reduction.

There is actually so many cards to pick from to run with Dragon Zwei, that I honestly am at a loss most of the time. So, I went with something I think the most of us can actually get behind in terms of decklists: Size 3 spammage. Because...that has not been done in this article already, right?

Like most Dragon Zwei decklists focusing on Size 3 monsters, we focus on just dropping down our big beatsticks and sitting on them most of the time, but it's important to know that in the beginning of the game, you can afford to take a couple hits, because you have so much life to go around. Utilizing Balle Soleil will make you able to stall out even longer, at the cost of some cards.

Other than the obvious, we are also running Meteoswarm, Zenislator, as well as his impact form, because they work wonderfully well in Dragon Zwei. Destruction, Double Attack, Soulguard walls, just a lot of good stuff comes out of Zenislator. We are also running Transcend Dragon Emperor, Ewigkeit not just for more cheap walling potential, but also because his ability can swarm your field with multiple of our potent Size 3 monsters at once, creating an offensive force that the opponent will have a hard time dealing with.

And when both you and your opponent seem to have exhausted your resources and are low on life... You slam down Great Demonic End Dragon, Azi Dahaka and proceed to destroy the opponent with his multiple attacks. Balle Soleil stalls the opponent and drains them of resources, while Azi Dahaka finishes them off. Woah, if only all enemies could work so well together...

We are running a few Size 2 monsters in the form of Ice Dragon Emperor, Glacies, because what would a Size 3 Dragon deck be without him? We also have Thunder Knights, Rising Flare Dragon that can not only hit the opponent's monster into the dropzone, but he also draws you a card in the process, making him a valuable little asset. And we also get a visitor from Hero World: It's none other than our Ninth Omni Brave Lord, Mukuro! Mukuro is so far the only Transform, or item in general, that Zwei can make use of, but having just a 5/2 item makes the deck much better. The defense by Transforming into him is just a plus.

We have a couple of Size 1s in here too. Fortune Dragon, Forbolka and King Gorai being the gauge chargers of the deck, and will continue to see use over the next couple formats. And we also have some copies of Resurrected Dragon Bones in there, because the option to fetch back Balle Soleil or any other Size 3 is good to have.

For Size 0s, we have Star Remnant, because most of our Size 3s are Neodragons, making him actually somewhat usable in this deck too. Flarefang "SD" makes a reappearance, helping us drawing cards and combines well with Rising Flare Dragon. Volg is also in the deck, to defend all of our Size 3s. And...woah, we are actually using components from all the decks we had goen through earlier. That was unintended.

Destructor is also in here for very obvious reasons, being our walking Divine Dragon Creation and will thus be staple until the end of time. (Why did you make him Secret Rare only. GAH.) And lastly, we run Curse Dragon Jr. as an additional shield, that actually works wonderfully combined with Balle Soleil, as the opponent might try to mass-Link your face.

Making Zwei decklists are actually fun, if not a bit linear, but with the coming of Daeva, we might see even more ways to play the deck.

Hopefully.

The Sun has set...
That took a lot longer to write than I wanted to...

And my computer froze TWO TIMES while I was working on this article, so I had to start over multiple times. Not fun at all.

But it was worth it. I hope you guys all had a nice Christmas or just a happy holiday in general, and with 2017 lurking right around the corner, I hope I am going to be seeing you all follow me into the new year as Buddyfight continues to expand.

With Season 4 and 5 announced, I can just pray and hope that things are looking up for us.

RaijinSenshi / CobaltClaw, signing out. Peace~