Beatsticks exist in every game and they are as potent as ever in the Battle Spirits TCG. Beatsticks are those cards with exceptionally high battle points compared to the rest of the cards in the card pool. They are the cards who force you to grimace as you stare at them blankly after they declare an attack against you. It is very difficult to defend against a beatstick since most cards cannot even compare to the battle points that these cards are graced with. My criteria for declaring a beatstick is unique to the Battle Spirits TCG and is probably a little different form what you would expect. In order to make that evaluation, I use a calculation called 'Equivalent Cost'.

Before you freak out for not knowing what Equivalent Cost is, you shouldn't know of it because I made it up. I talked about it briefly in a previous article when I was discussing the usefulness of The DragonBuster Archeorni at level 2. Equivalent Cost is the total amount of cores required to put a card into play at a specific level. You can only compare the battle points of cards with the same equivalent cost. When you compare the battle points of two cards with the same equivalent, it becomes clear which is the better beatstick. In that situation, the spirit with the higher battle points would be considered the better beatstick. Lets apply this methodology to every spirit in Set 1 to determine which spirits from Set 1 can rightfully be called beatsticks.

We will now examine spirits who have an equivalent cost of one at level 1. The first thing we can discount are spirits who have battle points lower than 4000 and an equivalent cost of 2 or higher. The reason we are doing this is because Hercules-Geo can achieve battle points of 4000 with an equivalent cost of 2. Any spirits who have an equivalent cost of 2 and a battle points lower than 4000 are considered to be less of a beatstick than Hercules-Geo. Hence, we can discount them as beatsticks. That eliminates a lot of the data that we collected on these spirits. If we look at all the spirits with an equivalent cost of 1, we can see that there are several with battle points of 1000. We can conclude that most spirits with an equivalent cost of 1 will have 1000 battle points. However, the criteria for a beatstick is that it has exceptionally high battle points for its equivalent cost. There are a three spirits who have 2000 battle points at an equivalent cost of 1. Based on our definition, Flyingmirage, Skulldevil, and SealedBeast Marco are beatsticks when comparing their battle points to all the spirits in Set 1 who are able to achieve an equivalent cost of 1. That is to say that Flyingmirage, Skulldevil, and SealedBeast Marco will give you the highest battle points out of all the spirits in Set 1 for using one core to put them into play.

Spirit	EC Lv1	BP Lv1	EC Lv2	BP Lv2	EC Lv3	BP Lv3	Notes
Gora	1	1000	3	3000
Foger	1	1000	2	2000
Beatbeetle	1	1000	2	2000
Rokceratops	1	1000	2	3000	3	4000
Skulldevil	1	2000	2	3000
Flyingmirage	1	2000	2	3000
IceDroid	1	1000	2	2000
Merat	2	3000	3	6000			Will deplete on your start step if you don't place 2 cores on him when he's first put into play.
Hummerdrake	2	4000	3	5000	8	9000	Need to remove 1 core from your field or trash.
Emeant	1	1000	3	4000
Dragsaurus	1	1000	2	3000	4	5000
SealedBeast Marco	1	2000	2	3000	4	5000

*EC = Equivalent Cost *EC Lv1 = Equivalent Cost at Level 1

We are not going to look at spirits with an equivalent cost of 2 at level 1. For the sake of not posting a huge list of spirits, I am trimming the data where every spirit with who has 3000 Battle Points or less at an equivalent cost of 2 and spirits with 4000 Battle Points or less at an equivalent cost of 4 or higher. Spirits who fit these criteria were removed from the data set. Spirits with a battle points of 4000 or higher stand-out among those with an equivalent cost of 2. The Scout Dragno, Chakrambat, Hercules-Geo, and Jurassickle can be considered beatsticks at level 1. Spirits who have an equivalent cost of 3 and battle points of 5000 or higher can be considered beatsticks. Spirits who fit this criteria are The Scout Dragno, Chakrambat, Gatlingstand, and Stagrove. Spirits who have an equivalent cost of 4 and battle points of 6000 or higher can be considered beatsticks. Spirits who fit this criteria are Disaster, Hercules-Geo, and Jurassickle. As you can see, some spirits qualify as beatsticks at different levels while some are beatsticks regardless of which level they are at. This is important for when you decide which beatstick you want to run in your beatdown deck. It is best to choose the all-around beatsticks who have high battle points at any level, but it can also be beneficial to use spirits who are beatsticks at specific levels. Just know your limitations on those cards for when they can and can't be considered a beatstick.

Spirit	EC Lv1	BP Lv1	EC Lv2	BP Lv2	EC Lv3	BP Lv3	Notes
The Scout Dragno	2	4000	3	5000			Only When Attacking
Shockeater	2	3000	3	4000
Chakrambat	2	5000	3	6000			Only When Attacking
Gawrm	2	1000	4	5000
Disaster	2	3000	4	6000	8	8000	Must Attack
Hercules-Geo	2	4000	4	6000	6	8000
Eagrass	2	2000	3	4000
Rabicrysta	2	2000	6	6000
Gatlingstand	2	3000	3	5000
Stagrove	2	3000	3	5000
Dualcannon-Bell	2	3000	4	5000
Jurassickle	2	6000	4	8000			Only When Attacking

*EC = Equivalent Cost *EC Lv1 = Equivalent Cost at Level 1

Continuing on to the next block of spirits by comparing the spirits with an equivalent cost of 3. Once again, I am going to thin the list by removing spirits. Out of the remainins spirits, the criteria for being a beatstick at an equivalent cost of 3 is to have battle points of 5000 or higher. The spirits who fit this description are The SilverScale Nithhoggr, HungryTree, The MeteoriteArmor Monoqueiroz, and The Commander Dragno. The criteria for being a beatstick at an equivalent cost of 4 or 5 is to have battle points of 7000 or higher. The spirits who fit that description are The SilverScale Nithhoggrr and Hungrytree. The way I am choosing these specific battle points to declare a beatstick is by comparing the battle points of all of these spirits at a specific equivalent cost. The highest battle points at that equivalent cost sets the standard. I also look at the highest battle points for the previous equivalent cost and make note that the battle points should increase as the equivalent cost increases. Therefor, a spirit cannot be considered a beatstick if it has low battle points with at a high equivalent cost. Towerrmittcrab and The Impregnablefortress Odin may also fit the description but it all depends on how many nexus are on the field.

Spirit	EC Lv1	BP Lv1	EC Lv2	BP Lv2	EC Lv3	BP Lv3	Notes
Volc-Baboon	3	4000	5	6000			Can't Block
The SilverScale Nithhoggr	3	5000	4	7000			When Blocks
Taurusknight	3	3000	5	5000	8	9000	Evolution
Skel-Viper	3	3000	5	6000
The Mysteryman Dionaeman	3	3000	4	5000
Hungrytree	3	5000	5	7000
Towermittcrab	3	????	4	????			Gets +1000 BP for each nexus
The Flame WindDragon Ma-Dwo	3	3000	4	4000	7	7000
Lizardman	3	4000	4	6000	7	9000
The MeteoriteArmor Monoqueiroz	3	5000	7	9000			Including his own effect
The ShieldSpirit Dis	3	3000	6	6000
The Commander Dragno	3	5000	5	7000			Including his own effect
The ImpregnableFortress Odin	3	????	5	????	8	????	Gets +1000 BP for each nexus

*EC = Equivalent Cost *EC Lv1 = Equivalent Cost at Level 1

Proceeding onto the spirits with an equivalent cost of 4, I have thinned the list of spirits once again. Spirits who have an equivalent cost of 4 and 7000 or more Battle Points are considered beatsticks. Spirits who have battle points of 10,000 or higher at an equivalent cost of 7 or 8 are considered beatsticks. That leaves us with Skelton-Jaw, Gowsilvia, and The SteelWyvern as beatsticks. Skelton-Jaw's battle points depends on how many spirits are unexhausted on your opponent sided of the field. However, it is fairly easy to gain a high battle points through his effect and therefor he should easily qualify as a beatstick under our guidelines. Gowsilvia receives +1000 BP for each core in your reserve. It has, however, rather low battle points without his effect. It is possible to create a potent beatstick out of him if you put him in the correct deck.

Spirit	EC Lv1	BP Lv1	EC Lv2	BP Lv2	EC Lv3	BP Lv3	Notes
Elephantite	4	6000	7	9000			When Blocking
Skelton-Jaw	4	????	5	????	10	????	Gets +1000 for each unexhausted spirit opp controls
Draculious	4	4000	6	6000	7	9000
The PhantomBull Smowg	4	3000	6	4000	9	7000
Gowsilvia	4	????	6	????	8	????	Gets +1000 for each core in your reserve
The DragonEmperor Siegfried	4	4000	5	6000	8	10000	Evolution
The SteelWyvern	4	10000	7	12000	11	15000	When Blocking

We're almost done! Here is a trimmed list of spirits with an equivalent cost of 5 or higher. There are very few spirits here who qualify as beatsticks. The reason for that is because most of these spirits have incredibly devastating and useful effects. If they had a high battle points to back that up then they would be true monsters and may be considered broken. Going by the rule we set previously about spirits with an equivalent cost of 7 or 8, we can see that The LeoDragon Lion-Howl and The DragonicFortress Giga are the only beatsticks here. The LeoDragon Lion-Howl is also considered a beatstick since he has exceptionally high battle points of 14,000 at an equivalent cost of 10.

Spirit	EC Lv1	BP Lv1	EC Lv2	BP Lv2	EC Lv3	BP Lv3	Notes
The LeoDragon Lion-Howl	6	5000	8	11000	10	14000	When Attacks
The Duke Kingtaurus	5	4000	7	6000	13	12000
The SevenShogun Desperado	6	6000	9	9000
The AutoEmpress Sol	6	2000	10	6000
The ArmoredBeast Bear-Gelmir	6	7000	7	9000
The GaudyFeather Vulpelture	7	7000	11	10000
The DragonicFortress Giga	5	5000	7	10000
The Phantom Horseman	6	4000	8	6000	9	9000
The Dragon Diamat	5	4000	7	6000	9	9000
The Fire LithoGraphica Phoenixious	5	4000	8	7000

*EC = Equivalent Cost *EC Lv1 = Equivalent Cost at Level 1

We've now gone through all the spirits in Set 1 and determined which cards are beatsticks at which levels. I find it amazing how strong some of these spirits actually are in relation to other spirits with the same equivalent cost. To be faced with a mid-game Hercules-Geo when you aren't running a deck that can't even begin to compare in power is quite frightening. Your spirits would be running for their lives if not for their tricky effects. While I have outlined the most powerful cards in the game in terms of battle points, these cards must be used with discretion and wit. As Ben Parker once said, "With great power comes great responsibility." If you are fortunate enough to employ the power of the strongest spirits in the game, you must use them with great responsibility and ensure that you are using them to their full potential.

You are now aware of all the cards in Set 1 that I consider to be beatsticks and why. You can go brag to your friends that this card is the best and this is why. Actually, you can't do that just yet. I haven't told you who are the best beatsticks and when. You could figure it out for yourself but its much easier for me to tell you. It's a lot less work for you that way. However, your going to have to wait a couple days for part 2 of this article to find out which beatsticks reign supreme over their brethren in Set 1. I will also give you a standard table that will let you determine whether a card is a beatstick or not just by comparing the equivalent cost and battle power to those in the table. It is a very easy and useful method if you want to find out how powerful a card is in relation to the card pool. Look for part two of this two part series on Battle Spirits beatsticks in the upcoming week!

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