User blog comment:Leobwin/Thunder Reign/@comment-1755882-20141023131712/@comment-16524402-20141023225201

Thank you for the advice! I'm glad to see a discussion of the Meta in Buddyfight in it as well, as it's something I'm coming in wanting to learn quickly.

To start out with, I agree with the four Jackknife Gift, but four Jackknife "Gold Ritter"? I'm not sure I completely agree. Jackknife Gift tutors exclusively for Jackknife "Gold Ritter" (unless you have a Jackknife "Gold Ritter" on the board already, but we'll ignore that) and makes your Jackknife bigger, but in my current build, I find myself using Jackknife Braveheart to find either Jackknife Gift or Jackknife "Burn Energy", and I draw into one in my opener more often than not (and, on those occasions, I have a Jackknife Gift in hand). I feel confident that it's fine running three Jackknife "Gold Ritter", since you'll be tutoring for them fairly regularly. I would say I feel fine with two, but the amount of blind gauge this deck generates is simply too high to run just two. It's also worth mentioning here that the version I am piloting while I get the rest of the cards for the deck contains one Jackknife "Gold Ritter", two Jackknife Gift and two Jackknife Braveheart, and I pull the card with astounding consistancy.

Dragobond is a really interesting addition! I'd completely missed it my first time around, but it seems powerful here. With Jackknife "Thunder Storm", it's a nice combo to get a "free" destruction of your opponent's monster when they try to destroy yours as well. That will definitely be one of my first edits to this deck, I really, really like the inclusion of that card.

I looked at Jackknife "Savior" and really did like the card, but I find it problematic with the combo. If you're moving it to the center to take a hit for you, you're basically wasting two turns of combo, since Jackknife "Burn Energy" can't be called to center, and you'll need to move Jackknife "Savior" back to the left or right in order to continue comboing. That being said, with some Dragobonds and Dragoenergys, I can see him being called to center with three soul, and next turn being used as the pay cost for Jackknife "Gold Ritter"'s cost to call, assuming you draw into him. I do like Jackknife "Savior"'s inclusion for defensive play, but with ten Jackknife "Gold Ritter"s in your deck (essentially, with Jackknife Gift and Jackknife Braveheart), he's a very high probability to have in your opener, or some way to find him. Not to mention, Jackknife Dragons, if you do field them, are High Value Targets for your opponent, and they'll likely only go for the kill if they have it, giving plenty of space to use one or more of the twelve Shield cards. Personally, I feel like I'd rather have the extra Shields, though I have been thinking about the space where I need to sit. Against Dragon World, I need to sit at five so I can't be Gargantua Punisher!!'d, and against Dungeon World I need to sit at four or five so I can't be Dead End Crush!'d. Who knows, maybe after piloting this deck for a bit I'll come around, but I feel like Jackknife "Savior" isn't that great in the current build.

A curiosity about Jackknife "Jaeger", is he in the deck just because he's great, or did you consider Jackknife "Beistand" at first? I feel like Jackknife "Beistand"'s gauge cost is going to be super high for the deck to try and pay and still combo through, but I still need to look into that more and test the deck before actually making the edit.

My problem with Jackknife "10000" as a base is I feel it's very expensive. This may just be me being overly cautious, but without Dragonic Charge in the deck, which I've found has saved me time and time again when I'm trying to combo, the Jackknife "Burn Energy" is often needed to be tutored for via Jackknife Dragon's effect, or with Jackknife Braveheart, and I break even on gauge, whereas I actually need to be generating in order to get more evolutions AND Jackknife "Gold Ritter" out on the same turn. Having one Jackknife "Burn Energy" in hand solves this issue I suppose though, so it may just be my fear of gauge issues. Plus, you have the two charge and draws from the past two turns, except six out of the ten base forms in the deck cost gauge to call, so you end up with three to two gauge unless you start off of Jackknife "Berserker". I'm not so sure about that, I'll need to pilot the deck before I decide my feeling on how the gauge plays out.

Onto Victory Slash!, I feel that it's a cute addition to the deck and, as you put it, a win more card, and is also something I'm looking to replace right away as well. Even testing the deck I have without it in I win fine, and it's just not that great. It'll easily be the first cut.

And finally, onto the discussion of the sideboard. Cavalry Academy is a great thing to bring up against Sword of the King, Excalibur! I had, just like Dragobond, completely missed it my first time around. Definitely worth leaving in the sideboard for that matchup, as well as... In case someone has Guardian Dragon of the Ruins, Meteor Rain? I don't know, maybe all it's relevant for is Excalibur. I like the rest of the sideboard as well, four Knightenergy for those pesky link attacks, and two Gospel of the White Dragon Deity for when the opponent trys to impact. Obviously these don't come in against Dragon/Dungeon worlds, since their impacts can't be nullified, and our opponent isn't likely to be at 2.

A final note; I really like that Jackknife "Thunder Storm" is your buddy, and probably one of the very first things I'll change as well.

All in all, thanks for your input! I hope you'll be able to help me out more as I adapt this deck, you seem very knowledgeable.