I’ve been wanting to do a new sort of series in the vein of the old Leader Guides recently and I think it’s finally time to break it out. A lot has changed over the brief history of the Dragon Ball Super TCG, so much so that many things we may know about older Leaders have changed wildly. Many for the better. It’s time we start looking back at Leaders that we should start taking a second look at. The first source of discussion? The one who started it all in DBZ, Raditz.

Raditz/Raditz, Brotherly Hate

Initial Goals of Leader On Release:

– To dig out combo pieces to eventually go into Vegeta, Saiyan Elite

– To slowly wear down the opponent’s hand size with repeated attacks on both Leader sides.

Initial Problems of Leader On Release:

– Vegeta, Saiyan Elite proved far too unwieldy to actually use in competitive games, leaving Raditz a very lacking win condition outside of trying to piece together SS3 Scramble.

– At the time he only had one good target to search with his ability, being Vegeta the Cruel. All Raditz and Nappa cards at that time were mediocre to horrible

– While he could wear down an opponent’s hand size, his own also suffered mightily from lack of card advantage especially if he attempted to use Arrival. In most cases he would, ironically enough, end up losing the resource war.

– Extremely weak Awaken with no draw and only untapping 1 Energy.

– Awaken Side ability relatively poor.

Upgrades Since Release:

– A plethora of far better targets for his search. From one to at least four good targets, all of them fantastic.

– Arrival has become easier than ever thanks to two of those targets which allow him to constantly put strong bodies onto the board.

– A new 1 Drop Raditz and a new Chi-Chi has greatly helped his ability to not only maintain, but gain a lot of card advantage very quickly allowing him the ability to actually pull ahead late in games.

– An easier way to dump Dormant Legend into the Drop Area to allow him access to some of the strongest Arrivals R/G has in the Broly cards.

Discussion:

Raditz had always been somewhat of a pet project of mine on the side but man has he always struggled to really find ground. He was definitely a victim of Bandai vastly overestimating the scope of his abilities and preemptively curbing him straight into the ground. Untap 1 Awaken, no way to glean card advantage and an embarrassing Awaken Side ability. Admittedly most of my project love was to try and make Vegeta, Saiyan Elite work because burn damage and the art is gorgeous. But after testing it just showed how far behind he was from the actual meta at hand. The only trick he had up his sleeve was the ability to dig for Vegeta the Cruel which alone wasn’t really enough to hang his hat on.

Then Bandai started a slow push to help. Releasing a couple of Nappas and Vegetas (mainly to make his 1 Drop SR actually function) which were fine but nothing ground-breaking. No, the fun really started when they revealed Raditz, Ruthless Adversary. Finally, against any deck that wasn’t outright Mono-Black (so Demigra and eventually Hatch) Raditz could gain legitimate card advantage and really push the long game into his favor while also giving him Self-Awaken if need be. Then Raditz, Arrival of the Invader came out of nowhere. Finally a way to cheapen the cost of Arrival and Raditz could even search it! But still, what he could Arrival was pretty lacking outside of Gogeta. He could try Broly but it required hard drawing Dormant Legend to ditch it which obviously is pretty damn unreliable with a Leader with no card draw whatsoever.

But now Malicious Machinations has sparked Raditz a ton of joy. First the obvious, Nappa, Demolition Man. Talk about a card that does it all for Raditz. Red/Green Super Combo, easily fulfills the cost of Arrival. Puts himself on board so he can do it multiple times, and he’s a Nappa so he’s searchable! But we also got the not so obvious, Bulma, the Problem Solver. Now we have an extremely easy way to get Dormant Legend into the Drop Area. From 4 to 8, now the deck can far more reliably play the Broly Arrival cards which are far more potent in a format that I can guarantee WILL have Dual Color Super Combos flying out everywhere. I believe the deck has a ton of potential as an Arrival machine, pumping out bodies on offense and defense on the cheap while being able to dig for your best cards and whittling down the opponent’s hand size early and often. Let’s get to the Deck Profile.

Set 9 R/G Arrival Spam Raditz

3 Chi-Chi Motherly Mastery

3 Raditz, Ruthless Adversary

4 Broly, Demonic Origins

4 Nappa, Demolition Man

4 Bulma, the Problem Solver

4 Vegeta the Cruel

4 Raditz, Arrival of the Invader

4 Toppo, Righteous Aid

3 Broly, Rapid Barrage

3 Champa and Beerus, Capricious Gods

4 SSB Gogeta, Resonant Explosion

3 Broly, Tragedy Foretold

1 SS3 Scramble – Raditz, Vegeta & Broly

4 Dormant Legend

2 For the Greater Good

Deck Discussion:

The goal of the deck is pretty simple. Lean on Raditz to keep the opponent’s hand size compact while you continue to bomb them with cheap bodies that you can easily pump out. The only actual downside to Raditz is that, outside of the Secret Rare ironically enough, he can’t actually search out the Arrival cards themselves. Just the enablers, so do your best to keep your hand stocked. Pretty much everything in here is built to take advantage of his abilities in one way or another.

Talking Points:

Why only 3 Ruthless Adversary and Chi-Chi despite hyping them up so much?

While Chi-Chi is still great, she isn’t as absurdly necessary because it’s easier than ever to Arrival so at this point she’s there as a pseudo-Super Combo more than anything. Because of that it’s fine to keep her at 3 in a pinch. I actually do find myself pitching and charging her a bunch because she doesn’t help advance board state but she’s good when needed.

As for Ruthless Adversary unless you’re playing in a matchup that has a MUST KILL 1 Drop generally you don’t want this Raditz until Turn 3-4 at the earliest. You want it drawing at least 2 Cards when you play it. Considering it’s tough to mold your hand in a way to stash this card away until later in your hand so I feel 3 is the right number.

Why those ratios for the Arrival Cards?

The two Broly cards can only have singular copies on board so having a bunch in hand does us no good. Gogeta being an inherent Double Striker is enough, and Champa/Beerus helps provide Double Strike to the rest while also giving an actual body on board.

No Preemptive Strike?

I wanted to get it in here but it’s generally hard to find room. Maybe over Chi-Chi if you’re so inclined but I think you only Mainboard it if you’re absolutely terrified of Baby. If you are, then jam them in to deal with Super Baby 1’s Arrival (hopefully).

For the Greater Good?

Through the first couple of games I tested with this deck I realized that we should probably have some 1 Drop Negation in the deck in a pinch. Toppo can’t do everything after all. This is the best one because it’s very easy to stash in the Drop Area with Raditz’ ability and chances are the opponent WILL forget it’s there.

Tips:

Above all else, STAY PATIENT.

It is very easy to try and inundate the board too soon with bodies. In most cases it isn’t worth it and quite a few decks will turn the tables on you if you go in too soon. Let the game come to you, in most cases the clock is in your favor. Nothing is more backbreaking to your opponent than seeing you go Ruthless Adversary into Ruthless Adversary (better than seeing Engage into Engage…though I thankfully we don’t have to live in THAT world anymore).

Don’t forget you can search the Secret Rare.

It rarely comes up, but it DOES come up. The ability to dig for it is massive and because of how easy Arrival is, immediately moves up the clock.

Hold your Broly effects for Dual Color combos if applicable.

Any way you can disrupt your opponent’s Arrivals the better. If you’re doing it on the cheap while the opponent is struggling you’re in business. This will help you bleed them out even further, especially if they don’t have 2.

Treat Raditz like a Surge Leader.

What I mean by that is you generally want to be on your Front Side as long as possible. The search ability is far more relevant than the +5, you need to use the pittance of an Awaken skill wisely and generally you’ll be able to Awaken as necessary. Now he’s not as good as them, but he does the job he needs to.

Final Thoughts:

I think this deck has a lot of gas to it. It can play Control and it can play Tempo based on matchups. It likely could use some fine tuning (still struggles to deal with big Battle Cards) but I feel this will be a fun pick for the next meta.