Decklist: The Emperor's Pride

Would you play Tarot competitively?

"Only courage in the face of doubt can lead one to the answer."

Welcome to the land of the brave.

What is that light?

Overview 

Decorated with clockwork-styled borders and intricate card art, the Tarot attribute first debuted in BF02 and proceeded to receive more support in BF03. It’s easy to overlook them because of their abysmal stats and sub-par abilities that are deemed infeasible for competitive play.

But the true value of the Tarot series lies in two cards. 

Bling Bling

Meet the golden emperor with the melancholic and semi-creepy gaze, Actor Knights Emperor. Sitting at 5000 power and defense and 3 criticals, his stats are unbelievably massive for a size 1. In fact, they rival that of a Danger Worldsize 2! Of course, the emperor pays a little price for this power; if you do not have another Tarot on the field, he cannot attack. Yikes.

Thor’s hammer pales in comparison to Justice Hammer. This card is the Holy Grail of Tarot. By paying 4 gauge – note that the cast cost is optional if you have two or more Tarots on field – you get to destroy any card on the field. Any. Hysteric Spear generating too much advantage for your opponent? Destroy it. Want to finish off your opponent, but afraid of Glory Seeker revivals? Destroy it. Extremely tanky monster your monsters cannot remove? Destroy it. Justice Hammer is overpowered in a Tarot-centered deck. 

get rekt 

“But Jun, isn't Justice Hammer a 1-for-1 trade at best?” Good question. From a surface view - yes, it’s a wash. But it’s a wash at worst. In other words, you stand to gain advantage from casting it as long as you destroy a card that has paid a cost. For example, destroying your opponent’s Hysteric Spear. That’s a -1 for you (-1 cast), and a -2 for your opponent (-1 Hysteric Spear, -1 2 gauge cost). Indirectly, you've gained +1.  Looking beyond surface value, Justice Hammer can effectively crush key cards and slow down the opponent’s tempo early game, and remove center meatshields to go in for the kill late game. Great card, excellent utility. Moving on.

So, what kind of deck do these two cards complement? What deck puts Emperor’s stats to work? What deck allows constant minusing from Justice Hammer? The answer is, undoubtedly,

Magic World’s renowned size 1 aggro.

Checkmate!

The win condition then becomes strikingly clear. Set up a field of three size 1 monsters, chip away at the opponent’s life quickly. Simply put, you

"Bleed your opponent into oblivion." - Blaise

Then, at an appropriate timing, cast Justice Hammer to remove the opponent’s monster in the center, and link attack with all three monsters (preferably Emperors) for a powerful 6-to-9-damage finisher. Should your opponent cast any form of defensive spell to nullify the damage, flip your hair and exclaim coolly, 'My victory was inevitable.' before proceeding to cast Abra Cadabra!. As only one Counter can be cast per battle (link attacks count as a single battle), your opponent cannot cast a second defensive spell after you have negated the first one with Abra Cadabra. Hah!

The synergy is perfect. Before, Magic World lacked size 1 walls to defend whilst maintaining an aggressive front. Now, you have access to Actor Knights Lovers, Emperor and High Priest, all of which have 5000 or more defense! You also gain access to Emperor's 3 criticals to speed up the damage tempo of the size 1 aggro. 

Pinocchio's Journey

Setting Tarot up with Magic World also brings about immense benefits. Magic World boasts superior defensive capabilities, with spells like Magical Goodbye and Chillax!. Advantage engines that give you +0.5 like Nice One! and Demon Realm Negotiator, Gusion, help to maintain handsize even after overextending for size 1 field. Tarots’ Fool’s Journey further complements these advantage gainers, giving a +0.5 as well, albeit slightly more conditional. 





Card Choices

In a Magic World size 1 aggro deck, there should only be two choices for your size 2 line-up:
Center of the World, Mary Sue or Demon Realm Negotiator, Gusion.

 How the Grinch stole Christmas (2014)

Mary Sue is undoubtedly great as a tutor because her ability is a quality wash (-1 2 gauge call cost, +1 target spell). However, she is more suited to be in a dedicated control-type Wizards build, as spell-tutoring holds less importance in an aggro deck. Instead, you should be looking at our primate friend, Gusion. Gusion provides an immediate banana goodness of +0.5 on call (-0.5 1 gauge call cost, +1 card)! Ideally, you drop Gusion on turn one so that you don't sacrifice your damage tempo for the 0.5 gain. 


Fool Aims for the Wilderness is an okay card to run in this deck. It's a resource converter with a 5-life restriction imposed that ends up as a wash. If you're running this card just for the life gain, or to meet the 3-Tarot quota of Fool's Journey, you're better off with Key of Solomon, Second Volume and Actor Knights High Priest respectively. 

If there's one thing you shouldn't run, it's Actor Knights the World. But turn-reset is godly... right? Let's estimate its gross advantage. -0.5 1 gauge call cost, -1.5 3 gauge ability cost, -1 Actor Knights the Fool, +1 new turn draw, +0.5 new turn charge-and-draw, +1 new turn attack from the World. After all the gimmicks, you end up with a net minus of -0.5.  It is perhaps notable that you can gain advantage from the World. By retiring the World from the field and calling 3 size 1 monsters with 2 criticals each to take its place, you can make 3 additional attacks, which will net you a total of +0.5. But was it really worth the deck space, the setup and the trouble for this measly 0.5? The answer is no.   


Decklist

The following is a sample decklist tailored to my personal preferences.
It should serve as a basic guideline for players; tweak the minor details as you'd like. 


Buddy Monster: Actor Knights the Fool
Monsters (24)
Size 2 (4)
4   Demon Realm Negotiator, Gusion
Size 1 (20)
4   Fallen Angel, Paimon
4   Actor Knights Emperor
4   Actor Knights the Fool
3   Actor Knights Hermit
2   Actor Knights High Priest
2   Actor Knights the Magician
1   Preacher of Beauty, Gremory

Spells (23)
4   Nice One!
4   Magical Goodbye
4   Justice Hammer
2   Abra Cadabra!
2   Fool's Journey
2   Key of Solomon, Volume One
2   Solomon's Shield
2   Chillax!
1   Great Spell, Saturday Night Devil Fever 

Items (3)
3  Magic Arm, Burning Fist



Closing Note

This is a deck that requires a relatively high level of player proficiency. The pilot needs to exercise good foresight and read the opponent's plays in order to cast Justice Hammer and Abra Cadabra! at optimal timings. Actor Knights the Fool should be kept in the hand at all times until Fool's Journey can be cast. However, against experienced players, the Fool is also effective in baiting out the opponent's spells/attacks. It is up to the pilot to assess each situation and respond accordingly with flair. 

Chest-o!

The card images used on this site have been obtained and reposted from the Future Card Buddyfight Official Portal Site (http://fc-buddyfight.com/), in accordance to the guidelines stated there. Re-use of these images(re-post, distribution) is strictly prohibited. (C)bushiroad All Rights Reserved.