The card counter-synergies created in Kaijudo have brought about some of the more interesting games I have seen of any CCG. Thus far, for every seriously potent card that in some manner “breaks the rules” there is another card or cards which counter that strategy. However, these are not simple “hate” cards, they are cards that even if your opponent is not using the strategy they may be most effective against, they are still strong when presented against other decks and strategies. Are the designers geniuses or just plain lucky? Not really sure, to be honest. If they are merely lucky then I wish them the best of luck in the future!

Now, I do not even pretend that I have recognized every card counter-synergy in the game. For that matter, this is likely only scratching the tip of the barrel. I invite you to further discuss these in the forum section. There will be a thread topic already created just for this purpose. If there are any that you have noticed then please jump in and add your two cents. Why not? I already have.

Death Smoke/Veil Vortex

vs.

Herald of Infernus/Bottle of Wishes

Upon the games initial introduction up to Rise of the Duel Masters, both Death Smoke and Veil Vortex were solid cards, regularly seeing use for no other reason than they did their job, even if not as well as some of their removal counterparts. When Evo Fury was released both of these are began to make hasty retreat. These new evolution creatures where simply rarely effected by the likes of these spells. Dragonstrike Infernus changed everything again when suddenly high cost dragons with dominating static effects reared their head. Now, what made these two card so important in the new meta is not actually the dragons themselves, but Herald of Infernus – a 5 cost dragon that can allow you to drop one of your fatty dragons much earlier than you normally could by slaughtering an opponent’s creature. In addition, Bottle of Wishes would do the same, though with a certain amount of luck involved.

Death Smoke, at 5 cost, is perfectly costed to counter both of these strategies at just the right time. Veil Vortex, while perhaps not quite as effective, does allow the player to temporarily reverse a losing situation by returning that creature to their hand.

 

Bone Blades/Return to the Soils

vs.

Emperor Neuron/ Bronze Arm Sabretooth/Cheap Effective Evo

I believe this is one of the most beautiful card design synergies in the game. Everyone full well knows how powerful Emperor Neuron and Bronze Arm Sabretooth can be (along with several other similarly cost to power ratio evolutions). There’s a reason why Emperor Neuron is one of the most expensive singles in the game and Bronze Arm Sabretooth has one of the more competitive decks in the meta named for him. However, the low cost of these cards quickly become a double edged sword as Bone Blades and Return to the Soil gladly remove them from the equation.

Ryan Miller (former lead designer for Kaijudo) stated that he was overall torn with the idea that these powerful creatures could be taken down with such a low cost spell forcing the player to lose two cards. Despites Mr. Miller’s reservations, these cards have truly given a great deal of balance to the game.

 

Razorkinder Puppet

vs.

Gighorn Charger

Gigahorn Charger is an awesome 3000 powered green creature that helps to propel your deck into even greater creatures by allowing you to search out a creature with a power of 5000 or more. This typically occurs around turn 4 or 5, right about the time when you are getting ready for just such creatures. However, Darkness represents with the ultimate in counter-technology with Razorkinder Puppet. Essentially the turn after Gigahorn Charger is allowed to go off, Razorkinder Puppet is pillaging the their hand, effectively removing the threat they had just searched out.

Dreadclaw, Dark Herald

vs.

Skull Shatter

Without the likes of counter-spells as in Magic: The Gathering, the only means of preventing your opponent from playing a card outright is to force them to discard it before they even have the chance. Skull Shatter allows you to do that on steroids as they discard their entire had goes tumbling into the discard pile and at 8 cost Skull Shatter can accomplish this just before many decks are able to start fielding their most devastating of creature – the big 9 cost dragon from Dragonstrike Infernus. However, the same set granted those dragon a counter spell in the form of Dreadclaw, Dark Herald. He this creature enter play he return ALL dragons in your discard pile to you hand. Now that’s some nice card economy!

 

Spellbane Dragon

vs.

Heavy Shield Blast Decks

Shields are such and awesome and integral part of Kaijudo. Without the shield this would…well…it wouldn’t be Kaijudo, that’s for sure. The uncertainty of swinging in for the kill that shield blast represent is nearly unfounded across the spectrum of CCGs. For the average CCG you can often know when it’s safe to attack – not so in Kaijudo. While Spellbane Dragon does not completely destroy that sense of unease, this mighty dragon can allow you to relax a little as any shield blast you may hit will always be a spell forcing the opponent to break yet another shield. So, Terror Pitting that one of the two last attackers as you are losing your last shield for that blast winds up being an exercise in futility.