If anything, I feel like I got pretty lucky with my match-ups and in some, opening things like Imperm or Ash or both. In one of my last games that was against Swordsoul, I was able to open both Imperm and Ash. Ash to stop Emergence and then Imperm to stop the Taia they summoned. Shockingly, they didn't open Longyuan [or if they did, as they summoned him next turn by discarding Protos] and didn't have enough Swordsoul/Wyrms in hand to do anything further.

I still feel really bad against a ton of match-ups like Striker, Branded/Despia, and Runick. Most of the times, it just feels like you got super lucky since you opened Ash/Imperm and even then, it's not always enough. Also, given the wide variety of decks I faced, it's a bit hard to justify D Barrier [especially with Striker being up there now as something everyone would want to play]. I do like the card.. however, I haven't been using it since it really isn't something to protect yourself / do something to protect yourself in some scenarios, unlike how easy it is to use Imperm / the Solemns and the like. Plus, I'm not sure what I'd want to take out. Iron Wall might be an easy choice, however, it's also copium against Runick if I get Prison off and they somehow don't have the s/t destruction. It also kept me in my Dlink game as I opened it, however, I wasn't able to really get going, as my opponent had a few handtraps and the like and I opened with double Ash, which at least let me stop them as well.

Good point, I guess Called By also negates Raye for 2 turns which could actually end up being pretty valuable too

Yeah, I never went into her. Maybe once in the past few months. Normally, I'd take Floodgate Trap Hole with Myrm, unless if I have some traps that can protect Sera some, so that'd leave me with just Gravedigger's in deck. Plus, if I opened Brigandine alongside Myrm, I'd have both Floodgate and Gravedigger's with just 1 Gravedigger's left in the deck that can easily be brought out by Sera potentially the next turn.

---

While you can think of that as a neg since you don't get a free activation with Raff, I'd be normally bringing out Redoer with a trap in that case to bounce or depending on how I'm feeling, maybe Granite [although, I just jump on Redoer nowadays, so if my opponent has Nibiru, I don't lose my entire board] If I had more traps/extenders or was running something like Void Trap Hole as well for the Branded match-up, I've heard that Raff is pretty good, however, with how my deck is, I noticed that I'd have issues with larger attack monsters from time to time, so adding in Asophiel definitely gives me another way to deal with them or heck, just bounce anything they have, even if it's just set to go in for more damage. If I used Prison and had Compuls and then a way to go into Asophiel, you can deal 8k damage there if you stopped your opponent from doing anything, as besides Droplet, anything battle related isn't something you really see in decks.