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Darkus strategies

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:37:09 +0100

Get It Right Next Time is a blue ability card that allows you to go in and pull any blue ability card from your collection and add it to your unused pile when you lose a battle with a Darkus bakugan. Blue cards are usually boosters, and there are lots of different boosters available, so you'll be able to pick the right one to fit the situation, judging from what you've seen so far during the game (opponent's gate cards, ability cards, bakugan and their G-powers, and how they play them). It's usually best to lose the first battle anyway in order to get a grip on your opponent's strategy.

My favorite Darkus boosters include Copper Launcher (gives 100G to Darkus, doubles if on a Copper card), Power from Darkness (gives 140G to Darkus if on opponent's gate card), Landmine Pyro (gives 130G to Darkus if your opponent uses a trap), Infinity Dragonoid (gives a Heavy Metal bakugan 150G and removes any trap played that battle), Powder Keg (gives Darkus 100G on any gate card), Shade (gives Darkus 150G if you have another bakugan standing on the another gate card), and Sneak (gives Darkus 130G if it's the lowest-G bakugan in the battle).

Silver gate card Reuse only gives Darkus 40G bonus, but allows Darkus to move a blue ability card from their used pile to their unused pile after the battle. You'll be able to get Get It Right Next Time back, and use it to pull a different booster next time you lose a battle. This can work out to your advantage because...

Hate Gate is a copper gate card that gives 150G to Darkus and adds 100G for every blue ability card in your used pile.

Hellstorm is a gold gate card that gives 240G to Darkus, but also gives 100G to whoever has silver gate card Wind Portal in their used pile. Watch out if your opponent's playing Wind Portal and try to win your battle on that card.

Some good red abilities for Darkus include Dark Wind (after you roll and stand a Darkus, you can move any bakugan to any gate card), Darkfire Blast (after your opponent rolls and stands a bakugan, place one of your Darkus on the card they landed on), Masquerade's Throw (before you roll a Darkus, your opponent puts one of their unused abilities in their used pile), and Stealin' (not Darkus-based, but still pretty mean, as you move all your used bakugan to unused, then move one of your opponent's used ability cards to your unused pile).

My favorite green abilities for Darkus include Darkness to Victory (after you lose with a Darkus, your opponent has to play their gate cards face-up), Rain of Shadows (during a battle with a Darkus on your opponent's gate, your opponent gets no bonus from the gate) and the Doom Card (your Darkus gets 30G and the losing bakugan in the battle gets taken out of the game).

Ventus strategies

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:00:35 +0100

Ventus strategy seems to revolve around gate cards. A lot of Ventus-based ability cards help you find out what gate cards are out on the field before you roll (knowing the field), and some let you swap them out for cards from your or your opponent's used pile.

The blue ability card Get It Right Next Time allows you to pull a blue card from your collection and add it to your unused pile, and is played after you lose a battle with a Darkus or Ventus bakugan. This is useful for plotting out a strategy based on how your opponent plays; since blue cards are mainly G-point boosters, you can combine this with being able to peek at face-down gate cards by figuring out how much G-point help your bakugan will need to completely dominate in battles on certain cards.

For example:

Updraft gives a 140G bonus to Ventus and only works on your opponent's gate card. If your opponent's strategy involves pulling your bakugan onto their gate cards to gain advantage, or if you like to curve your bakugan onto your opponent's card to crush them with a high-G bakugan, this is a handy card.

Trap Squash gives Ventus bakugan a 100G bonus if your opponent uses a trap during a battle.

Thundercrack gives your Ventus bakugan an 80G bonus, and adds 100G if the battle is against a Haos or Subterra bakugan. If your opponent's rolling Haos and Subterra, consider drawing this card.

Bronz Launcher offers a 80G Ventus bonus, which is doubled if the battle is taking place on a bronze gate. If you still have your gate-switching cards by the time you're able to use this, you can get a bronze gate in play and take full advantage of this card.

Lightwind Color Shift lets your Ventus bakugan gain a G-point bonus from the highlighted bonus on the gate card. Pay attention to what the highlighted bonuses are on your and your opponent's gate cards, then use your gate-switching cards to bring out the gate you need when you need it.

There aren't too many great G-point boost cards when it comes to Ventus, since it's mainly about making sure that your bakugan is fighting on the gate card that already gives it an advantage. Check out red card Shun's Throw for gate card peeking, red card Shun's Launcher for moving bakugan around, and green cards Ventus/Ventus 2 for gate card swapping.

On a more advanced level, think about how your objective is to only win 3 gate cards. Use cards that help make sure that you dominate in battles on your own gate cards, so that they tend to end up in your used pile. Allow your opponent to win at least one battle on one of their own gate cards, so that you can save Shun's Throw for another of their gate cards (never waste it on your own!) and know later on what two of their three gate cards are. Swap out your opponent's gate card for one of your own when you find yourself at a disadvantage. You should be able to win a game with around 2 of your own gate cards and at least one of your opponent's in your used pile.

Haos strategies

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:26:08 +0100

Haos is all about low-G bakugan. The lower the Gs, the better. Why? Because there are so many Haos-themed cards that help them totally overpower higher-G bakugan!

For a basic example, take a look at copper gate G-Power Swap and the bonus it gives to Haos. Not only do the two bakugans' printed G-powers get swapped (Haha Darkus Hades, now I'M 710G and you're not!) but it also shares the highest bonus with Subterra at 130G. Either way, if your bakugan has a printed G-power of around 200-300, your opponent's going to be really struggling to try to win a battle on this card, especially if you throw in blue card Copper Boost, which gives an 80G bonus to Haos, doubled to 160G for being played during a battle on a copper gate.

Gold gate Ethereas and copper gate Mirror Gate also give bonuses to low-G bakugan. With Ethereas, the bakugan with the lowest G-power gets +50 G-power for each other gate card on the field (and there are cards like green ability Super Quake that can get more than 2 cards on the field) when the battle is taking place. On Mirror Gate, the owner of the bakugan with the lowest G-power gets to put any ability card they play this turn back into their hand when the battle is over.

Take a look at gold card Energize. Haos strategy often involves playing ability cards. If you have to use a couple to win a battle early on, this card will allow you to put one of them back in your unused pile. Plus, it gives a 210 bonus to Haos!

In order to use some killer ability cards, your opponent needs to have at least one gate card in their used pile. What if they won that battle on copper gate High Voltage, which forces the player who wins by more than 100G to put all their ability cards into their used pile? Darkus brawlers won't be able to shut you down with their ability-blocking strategies, Aquos brawlers won't be able to get you where they want you, and Ventus brawlers can say goodbye to having any control over the field, when they can't play any ability cards for the rest of the game!

Copper gate Magma Fields doubles the G-power bonus that the lowest-G bakugan gets from any G-power boost cards that its owner plays during the battle. Try this with blue ability Heavy Hand, which offers a 100G bonus to Haos, and gets upped to 300G when your opponent is using Darkus! You can even combine it with green ability Shiny Devil, which offers a 400G bonus to a Haos bakugan who is getting trumped by a printed G-power of 200G or more! Combined with the 130G attribute bonus from the gate, that's a total G-power bonus of 1530G against Darkus!! (Can you say overkill?)

Reclaim is a new silver gate that allows anyone with a Haos or Darkus bakugan to move a red ability card from their used to their unused pile when the battle is over. That can be any red ability card that you've played over the course of the game! Alternately, silver gate Reuse allows you to do the same, only with a blue ability card.

Don't forget about copper gates like Blinding Gate, Duck & Win, Limbo Gate, Low Bridge, Needle's Eye, Overhang, Quick Sand, and Tricky Gate; they all make it so that the bakugan with the lowest total G-power wins the battle. Combine this card with green ability card Haos 2, which allows you to move a gate card from your opponent's used pile to your own, so long as your Haos bakugan is getting beat by 160G or more. This gives you 2 gate cards in one battle!

Speaking of ability cards...

Red ability Rip Tide is played at the start of your turn if your opponent has more used gate cards than you. So long as it stays in your used pile, you can reroll a Haos or Aquos bakugan once per turn.

Red card Flames of Light allows you to directly place a Haos or Pyrus bakugan on a gate card after your opponent manages to roll and stand a bakugan on that card, so long as it was empty before they rolled.

Red card Light Wind is played after you roll and stand a Haos or Ventus bakugan. Afterwards, you can move any standing bakugan to any gate card.

Not sure what red ability card you'll need? Use red card Learn from Experience. After you lose a battle with a Haos or Pyrus bakugan, you'll be allowed to go through your card collection and add a new red card to your unused pile. This is really handy for plotting out your endgame strategy, especially since you need to lose at least one battle to be able to play cards like Haos 2, and because you'll need for your opponent to have more used gates than you in order to get the bonus from certain gates and ability cards.