Battle Spirits has been revived in the form ofBattle Spirits Saga, taking the original Japanese card game and building it back from the ground up. With the benefit of hindsight and the renewed interest that reboots always bring, Battle Spirits might finally click with Western audiences in a way it failed to during its first run.
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Of the three main card types, nexus cards play the most passive role on the field, being played to the area like a spirit while still primarily effect-based, like magic. Though a nexus card may not be as flashy or game-ending as magic or spirits, any great player will want to utilize their effects to gain an edge in combat.
10Volcanic Canyon
Volcanic Canyon is a card whose usefulness can persist all the way until the end of the game– this is thanks to its level one effect, which allows you to draw an extra card every draw step that it is active. Since draw cards are some of the most important tools for establishing card advantage, Volcanic Canyon should be top of the list to get on the field as soon as possible.
Its level two effect is alright, being quite balanced without discouraging you from going out of your way to use it. 1,000 BP is nothing to scoff at, and when it’s applied across all of your spirits, your opponent will find themselves with fewer options to deal with your army.
9Blessed Cathedral
If you’re running a deck packed with yellow spirits, Blessed Cathedral is a passive boost that will give you an advantage no matter the result of combat; upon the destruction of one of your yellow spirits, this card allows you to obtain an extra core with its level one, and draw a card with its level two.
It’s generally difficult to destroy this card with core removal methods since its level one requires no cores, making it a cockroach on the field that discourages opponents from destroying your spirits. When playing against you, they must choose to either allow you to gain card advantage or utilize the benefits of your spirits.
8Netherworld Depths
If cards like Blessed Cathedral discourage aggression, then Netherworld Depths discourages defense. Its level one lets you draw a card anytime your opponent’s spirits are exhausted, which can happen when your opponent uses a spirit for nearly anything. Then, the level two destroys blocking spirits outright when you’re attacking.
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Thankfully, that powerful level two is contingent on the cores you have to spend, as you can’t destroy blocking spirits without at least three. Still, Netherworld Depths is a card that should be targeted the moment that it is seen, as the card advantage it gives is not to be taken lightly.
7Scorched Battlefield
Despite the hot environment that its name and art imply, Scorched Battlefield is a good tool for snowballing with aggressive maneuvers. The extra 1,000 BP for every attacking turn gives you an edge when reigning down blows, and if you manage to hit your opponent’s life directly, you’re rewarded with some card advantage.
Given that you’re unlikely to be dealing direct life damage more than a few times, this isn’t outright overtuned– it simply gives you more options as you dig deeper and deeper into an opponent’s defensive line. That extra card can mean everything when it comes to shutting the game down for good.
6Fortress Metropolis Naumann City
For the defensive player, Fortress Metropolis Naumann City is a card meant for turning active fights into battles of attrition. The level one effect of this nexus allows you to count this card as three white symbols when summoning Machine Beasts with a cost of six or more. Then, you get a 1,000 BP boost to all spirits when it’s your opponent’s turn.
The Machine Beast archetype is an inherently defensive one already, so this nexus essentially allows for quick, cheap units to join the field to maintain your defense. Since the spirits summoned are of a particularly high cost otherwise, the saved cores can be used to get the maximum value out of their effects.
5Star Altar
Star Altar is a great option for set-up and aggro decks alike, giving benefits to those who play a little more riskily with their strongest players. If a spirit with a soul core is destroyed, its cores are placed on another spirit rather than sent to the reserve. Then, the level two allows Star Altar to be exhausted in exchange for a Star Dragon card to be refreshed after being blocked.
For setting up, this is an invaluable tool for getting cores from one spirit to another, especially in the short term. For aggressive decks, this allows you to take your stronger spirits against an enemy without the fear of losing momentum.
4Purple Smoke Valley
Purple Smoke Valley is a solid option to force opponents into spreading their resources thin. Not only do you get to draw a card when destroying a spirit via core removal, but spirits owned by you with the curse keyword are unblockable by spirits possessing only one core.
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Thanks to these stipulations, your opponent will have no choice but to invest more cores than they may necessarily want to prevent you from either building up card advantage through core removal or rendering their weaker spirits useless.
3Soap Bubble Lakeside
Soap Bubble Lakeside has a particularly niche use case, but it does its job so well that it’s a must-have when building a deck that focuses on quantity rather than quality. If your deck is filled to the brim with cards of similar costs, the level one effect can ensure that each destroyed card will be replaced with one of comparable value.
Since the level one only applies to costs of three or lower,you shouldn’t try to force this into decksthat rely on high-cost spirits; the possibility of them being instantly sent to the trash should not be left to chance. The level two effect allows you to challenge defensive decks more easily since spread strategies tend to be weaker against them.
2Heaven-Piercing Castle
Heaven-Piercing Castle is the sort of card that can take certain archetypes and give them more broad appeal. Where normally, cards with block effects tend to be heavy on defense, the level two of Heaven-Piercing Castle rewards those cards for attacking by giving them free cores.
Since the cores rewarded from an attack are taken from the trash, you essentially widen your reserve pool while boosting the defensive power of your spirits. Additionally, the opportunity to counter-draw with the level one is a tool for preventing enemy card advantage.
1Rocket City
Though the defensive power of Rocket City’s level one is worth keeping around for its outright buff to every playstyle, the place this card shines is in its level two. For every card an opponent draws outside their draw step, they must also discard one.
It cannot be overstated just how important limiting your opponent’s options is, so having a card that can completely deny them from obtaining card advantage is a nice option. Depending on the deck type, you might just be pushing your opponent to their best card; be careful to only use this when you know that they’ll thrive more on plentiful cards rather than specific ones.
