Budget Deck: Ozons (Dungeon World)

Hey hey. Welcome to the worst deck ever. I'm gonna level with you here, Ozons suck. However, Ozons are a riduclously fun meme. I highly recommend them as a teaching or casual deck. The entire deck is simple with few to no complex skills, the art is quirky, the Ozon engine is insanely cheap, and the staples like negates are also cheap due to numerous reprints. It's actually the deck that drove me to take the keys to the blog from Chang. I feel it demonstrates the budget concept well. The essence of Budgetfighting, in my opinion, is to have fun with it. If you just want to let both players have fun with the quirky cards of Dungeon World, play the game casually, have some fun experimenting with cards and quantities, and maybe steal some wins, you've come to the right place.


Ozons are simple. They're bad, but at least they're not complex. Your main engine consists of 4 copies of Ozon A, B, C (which you can run less than 4 of), and B's Cat. From there, you run about 2-3 Ozon-Z. I'll talk about Rolling Punch later. So yeah.

A is your Stratos, for my Yu-Gi-Oh!-playing readers. On-call search your deck for an Ozon with a hard once per turn. Cheap, easy, and simple. Run 4 of your searchers. While I could delve into this in an article somewhere else, I'll just say now that searchers are almost always meant to be maxed in just about every game. Ozon-A's stats aren't great, but I already mentioned that. I wouldn't say to buddy it, but A is definitely a 4-of.

B is just a nice little body to have. A cheaply-recurring body is always nice regardless of stats, so there's no real reason to run less than 4. Lifelink kind of sucks on a size 0, but whatever. You basically invest a -1 each time you get Ozon-B out with his drop zone skill, making it an even 0. If you call it from hand, though, it's a net -0.5 by the time he's left the field. I wouldn't recommend buddying him, but he is pretty nice to have just about every game, so I wouldn't necessarily judge you if you do.

C is... Probably the only non-Z Ozon you don't always want to max. The plus crit and Tag-Along Resurrection are both nice, but the size stops you from fielding cards like Z or even more Cs along with it. It's a really strong opening play, though. Essentially, C is the Ozon that you don't necessarily see every game. Think of it as either an alternative wincon or an opening play. Any quantity can work. I play 4, but I've found 2 to work in the past.

Ozon-Z is arguably your win condition. Solid attacking power, double attack, and a potent recursion skill come at the cost of defensive prowess and a hefty minus to get him out. If you get Ozon-Z out, it's difficult to deal with sometimes. You'll want to be careful about the monster zone you revive him to, depending on factors such as penetrate, but he's generally pretty nice for field clearing. Going a total of neg 4 (2 gauge, 3 field) and locking you out of being able to field A and C for this kind of really sucks. A lot. That's what you get when you play the archetype based on the worst character in the series. It's hilarious to get it out, though, since the card itself is tough to actually get rid of once it hits the board. 2 or 3 copies work best, as 4 is a bit much.

Cat Fantastic. Sorry for the forced unpopular music pun, but it really is. You get minimum +0.5 on-call (wash from calling, +1 gauge) or a beautiful +1.5 (-1 to the opponent's field, 1 gauge). This is what I'd recommend for the buddy, to be honest. As a size 0, it's extremely versatile. As a size 0 with 3k power, it's pretty nice. It's overall probably the best Ozon aside from needing you to play the rest of the (terrible) archetype. Run this at 4, buddy or not.

Now that we've gone through the main archetype, we're about 18 cards into this. 8 total negates made up of some combination of Shalsana, Deflection, and Cassiade will work. I run Cassiade and Shalsana because I got the majority of my deck from a friend and don't want to unironically invest in Ozons, which is fair. Shalsana's generally going to be seen in any lineup, though.

Let's see, 24 cards left. Alright, I can work with that.

Rolling Punch. Dude, Rolling Punch. Counterspeed destruction is always pretty nice. I'd say run 4, in all honesty. While it can be a brick, you really just can't argue with what is optimally one-for-one removal that can go off during your opponent's turn.

For the rest of the deck, we could use some gauge ramp. Dungeon Enemies don't have access to a whole lot. Reset Button is a good one, though, assuming you use it correctly (which is not hard).

I like Dangerous Fuse. I'm sorry, I'm just a bad player. Really, though, Dangerous Fuse is such a fun card. Even if it's honestly pretty terrible, I love it all the same. It's also one of the few gauge ramp cards Dungeon Enemies have access to. As Blaise discussed in his Dungeon World article, Dangerous Fuse's downfall lies in the knowledge you give your opponent. If you fill your deck with bad cards, though, it shouldn't be an issue (I'm sorry, these shots are just too easy). In the end, it fits with this post's theme of "not the best, but fun enough."

In terms of weapons, there's Adventurer's Staff, Alcsbane (Idon'tlikeit), but that's hard to find for no good reason, which is something we budget players tend to avoid. There is another weapon you could run that I'd recommend, though. Demon Tamer's Flute, G'boy is such a nice card. pretty solid stats on an effect that can let your card attack again is fantastic. Don't want to leave yourself open? G'boy can net you another attack. Leaving yourself open? You're not out of options, you yourself can attack. I really like the concept of G'boy for its versatility. Plus, it's cheap. Why not? Either way, though you're not going to be relying on your weapons too terribly much, so a lineup as light as even just 4 weapons can work. You could go for a little more of a "weapon center, Z on the side" strategy for some offense, but I typically like slapping Z to the center as a wall. Playstyle will dictate this part of the deck.

From there, I'd say that filling the deck with like vanillas, neat monsters, and generic spells. Fate Skeleton is nice. Size 1 vanillas in Dungeon are pretty nice. Dungeon also has some relatively nice generic spells, so feel free to experiment until you find something you're confident in (as confident as you can be as an Ozon player).
                                                                                                                                                  
Decklist:
NOTE: This is only an example decklist and should only be used as a base. I recommended that you create your own decklist through your own testing. I found this decklist to fit me, but it is up to you to find a decklist that fits you.
Monsters:
Buddy: Any size 0, preferably B or B's Cat
4x Ozon-B
4x Ozon-B's Cat
4x Fate Skeleton
4x Ozon-A
3x Big Surprise Pandora
3x Mimic with a Prize
4x Ozon-C
3x Ozon-Z
Spells:
4x Quiessence of Cassiade
4x Divine Protection of Shalsana
4x Rolling Punch
3x Dangerous Fuse
3x Reset Button
4x Magical Beast Tamer Flute, G'boy

Buddy: Ozon-B's Cat

                                                                                                                                                  

Effectiveness: 2/10

Price: $10-40

Competitive: In the words of Obi Wan Kenobi, "don't try it."

Final Word: The Ozon engine isn't great by any means, but it's still meant to be built around rather than being slapped into decks around other things. The archetype's got clear weaknesses: They've got stupidly low stats and are weak to anything that can abuse Z's lifelink (as seen in the anime where Bal Saucer Over Rush demolished None Yet's life total by repeatedly slamming into Ozon-Z). As dungeon enemies, they also lack gauge ramping, not that they really need a whole lot aside from dumping out their wincon. Relying on Reset Button and Dangerous Fuse sucks, but whatever. In the end, don't expect to win with Ozons. I'd still recommend picking them up for more casual scenes and roping people into the game, though. In fact, it's one of my go-tos for doing so. Stay frosty.