User blog comment:Smartguyc/Jackknife deck/@comment-1755882-20140330013631/@comment-6881157-20140330141309

Being a -1 does not make a card bad in Buddyfight. Gargantua Punisher is one of the strongest cards in the game despite being a -1. The point of Dragonic Charge is that it sets up continuous for gauge-intensive plays to put a huge amount of pressure on the opponent. Knuckle and Blue Shield aren't neccessarily better options. I focus on Dragobrave for my item lineup due to its aggressive nature. I don't use Blue Shield because my deck is extremely tight with spell space and the gauge it creates is not significant enough to warrant using it over Charge.

You act like Jackknife decks achieve nothing without Jackknife Dragon. That's only true if you only run Jackknife cards in your size 2 lineup. The deck needs non-Jackknife size 2s for that reason. Each non-JK size 2 achieves the same purpose (setting up your field when you don't have a Jackknife in hand) without needing to pay 2 gauge like Braveheart does.

The 2 life cost of Dragonic Punisher is usually insignificant due to it ending the game right there. Having a size 2 on the field is much easier than having both centers open, so Dragonic Punisher has easier conditions than Gargantua Punisher at the cost of losing the nullification protection. Not having the same protection does not matter very much. Sure, all worlds have cards that can stop Dragonic Punisher but players hardly ever put those cards in their decks due to being situational (and useless against Gargantua).

No, you don't assume your center will protect you. Your mindset is that you have to stop every single attack. That's just silly, especially in a deck with 4 Green Shields and Song of Ancient Lands. You don't have to protect yourself because it doesn't matter if your opponent's attack goes through a few times. So what if it does? You can generate huge life recovery and it takes a lot of attacks to win the game. As long as you can nullify the odd 3-crit attack, you're completely safe. It would take like 4 turns of full out direct attacks to stop you. As long as you can slow your opponent down with a few shields, monsters and counter spells you won't have anything to worry about. 8 shields is just overkill.