Hello all and welcome to another day in the journey of Preview Season. Today, for the first time in what feels like forever it’s just a simple preview day, no random extra product or promos to talk about. Today are the Yellow Cards, of which most of us saw some “leaks” a few days before hand because the Demo Decks have come down and they happen to be Yellow this set. For the most part, it’s all about Frieza’s Army, something that hasn’t been the case since Galactic Battle. FA had slowly but surely faded from relevance with very little support. Will this support be enough to bring it back into the spotlight? Does Yellow have any other tricks going down? Let’s find out.

Master Roshi/Max Power Master Roshi

The first preview of the set however has nothing to do with Frieza’s Army however. Coming off his debut with the Jackie Chun Leader Card, Master Roshi takes the stage. He’s also pretty reminiscent of the Jackie Chun Leader Card but if there’s one word I’d have to describe Roshi Leader…it’s generic.

I mean woefully generic. He comes with the new Burst Draw Front Side but otherwise is no different than others. His Awakened Side is essentially just a 20K Swing that taps a Battle Card. It’s okay but man that’s lacking impact. Especially since he has to attack first to get the tap, so he doesn’t even get the benefit that other Leaders with a similar ability have of getting free swings at vulnerable Battle Cards.

Now this would all be fine if he were the Demo Deck Leader. Perfect Leader to learn the game with…but he’s not. The next Leader is the Demo Deck Leader so the outright plain, weak genericism of Roshi is immensely disappointing. Unless he gets some kind of bomb SR that only requires him there is very little reason to use Roshi. There are better tapping Leaders out there. If you want your Roshi fix, stick to Da Chun.

Sorbet/Frieza, Resurrected Emperor

The actual Demo Deck Leader and a Leader we’ve seen and known about since the Set was revealed as it was used to demonstrate the new “Wish Leader” mechanic they’re pushing. The main thing we found out today was that they really screwed up with making Sorbet “Sorbe” and issued an errata to both cards with the misspelling. Don’t know how you screw that up but whatever, I doubt it’ll be a huge issue.

Anyway with the influx of cards we can actually evaluate this Leader much better. Now Sorbet’s side is the exact same as Pilaf, and I can actually understand that. As villains (at least back when Pilaf was a villain and not comic relief on the side of good) Pilaf and Sorbet are cut from the same cloth, very willing to let their minions handle the dirty work. So flavor wise I’m fine with the copy-paste and it’s a good effect.

As for Frieza’s side, we’ll just cut straight to the Ultimate as his other two effects are the same as usual. Tapping a total of two Battle Cards and/or Energy and gaining +15K for the turn. Just to be clear, you can tap 2 BC, 1 BC/1 Energy, or 2 Energy. That’s it. Anyway, I would say it’s both the least impactful and also the most likely to end the game. Least impactful because it’s not very splashy compared to Shenron turning your strongest BC into a Triple Attack nightmare or Oolong just getting you 3 Cards. However tapping down Energy is a very potent ability. Messing with Energy is usually reserved for niche bombs…usually at least. The opponent simply cannot be at 1 Life around Wish Frieza, otherwise he’ll have to keep up 3+ Energy on defense every turn. So you know, be SS3 (which will be legal again when this Frieza drops) but they still have to keep it up like that for the entire turn as the second that guard is dropped Frieza is coming in for the kill.

That’s really just a gravy kill ability though, the main thing making this Leader playable is being a Shenron Frieza’s Army Leader. The support, as is generally FA tradition, will help push this Leader far or leave it behind. Wish Frieza certainly does enough though, solid Leader.

Super Saiyan Blue Son Goku

That’s nice, skip.

Fired Up SS Son Gohan

Now this is interesting. This is essentially Galactic Emperor Frieza in Battle Card form. I certainly enjoy myself Galactic Emperor Frieza but always lament that his decks are generally slow because tapping out with him is rough. This might be the compromise. Now the downside is that he limits himself only to Yellow Battle Cards which does hurt a little bit but this type of effect I always believe has value. Don’t overlook this Gohan.

Kick Barrage Piccolo

Now I initially thought this card was bad and was just gonna do a blurb and move on until I saw one very specific little word. “All”. Piccolo is a weenie board wipe and THAT got my attention. Yes, he costs 2 Life but to potentially kill an entire board of weenies, that’s more than worth it. Now the main issue is that the main deck you’d want to use this against, U/Y Swap, will make it hard on you. If you Nimbus…most of their Battle Cards won’t be tapped or really will be on board. If you don’t Nimbus you’ll have to be at a decent enough life total to not potentially kill yourself on the crackback. Then it just kind of goes to “Why not use Kami instead?” since he also costs 3 essentially, has a far more reaching ability, and doesn’t cost 2 Life in the process AND is relevant when not clearing the board. The answer is…yeah, use Kami instead but if you really feel the pressure you could add Piccolo in as extra board wipes in a pinch. Also helps if the opponent tries to get cute.

Krillin, Raring to Fight

Now this is one of the more interesting cards I’ve seen in a while. First off, he’s a 1 Drop 10K with upside and while the upside isn’t nearly as insane as Bardock, the Progenitor…he did show how valuable the extra pump in stats can be. His effect is extremely unique. Comboing for Battle Area (that’s nothing new but still nice) you get to tap down a 10K or less Battle or LEADER card. I won’t go as far as saying it’s insane, but it definitely has potential applications, mainly to deal with decks that have very precise sequencing early on in the game. It’s a bit difficult to evaluate how good or useful Krillin will be but I think he may end up being a Side Deck choice.

Tri-Beam Tien Shinhan

Looking slick Tien. Still, skip.

Master Roshi, All Warmed Up

This will not be a skip. Barrier/Blocker is nothing new, but a 19K Body…well the body is rare enough as it is. Simply put he beats 15Ks on attack and more importantly, on Defense. Probably won’t see play, we have better 3 Drop Blockers, but if we ever get random Roshi support this might be something to look back on.

Full Surveillance Jaco : Divine Cry Beerus

Since the cycle is a growing trend, I’ll just list these two together. Again, probably playing Jaco over Beerus in most cases. Still appreciated cycle.

Quick Obstruction Whis

Wait, how the hell can Roshi have above average 3 Drop with Upside stats but you make Whis a weenie 2 Drop in the process. Who designed this?

Deadly Defender Frieza

Another in the “Taunt” Cycle, but this one is arguably the most relevant in terms of related support because it’s Frieza. Run it, love it. Gets even better with the stuff we’ll see later in the article.

Frieza, Biding His Time

Random note, since we have this art having the FA trait, can we retroactively give Agony of Hell Frieza the FA trait? Pretty please? It’d be nice… No? …fine. Anyway, a new 1 Drop for FA and it’s essentially another Guldo. This has the upside of ignoring Barrier, Guldo has the upside of being a Blocker afterwards. Guldo has better upside in most cases, but more Avenging Frieza targets is a good thing.

Frieza, Revenge in Motion

Another 1 Drop Frieza showing one of his finest moments…getting cut down within two seconds. It’s…a weird card. You sac it to draw and then Foolish Burial a Frieza from the deck. It’s mainly to combo with Agony of Hell Frieza and a future card in this article. It’s like using Golden Frieza Leader, but with different upside. Still, I can get behind pseudo-tutor.

Military Command Frieza

So…much…Frieza. Anyway, we normally ignore 2 Drop Blockers but not this time because this Frieza got upside. When killed, and since he’s a Blocker that’s gonna happen, you get to play a 3 drop Frieza from hand. I initially wrote this as 3 drop or less, but as pointed out, it’s only a 3 drop. Unfortunately that really kills his upside. It’d be great with Deadly Defender, but unfortunately (and I can’t believe I’m saying unfortunately to this) it comes out untapped so there’s not as much gain. Not worth the play at the moment.

Bitter Past Ginyu : Ginyu

Once again, I’ll list these two together for convenience sake. It’s pretty reminiscent of the Grandpa Gohan engine. The upside is that there are a lot less moving pieces going on, you just need this Ginyu. Also early game Critical is more valuable than Double Strike in most cases. You also get to draw a card, that’s nice. This all comes with one relatively big downside though. It only grabs from deck, which means this card can turn dead unlike Grandpa Gohan which is generally never dead (well the card at least, ole Grandpa been dead by Ape Squash for a while).

Still, being Frieza’s Army is likely relevant enough to note AND being Ginyu Force means more shenanigans. I can see decks playing this though it’ll likely be more niche.

Dragon Ball Seeker Sorbet

Better version of Bulma since you get to use the Dragon Ball you grab. Not much to say, if you’re playing Wish Frieza, you’re playing 4 of this.

Vicious Lackey Tagoma

Something that has been seemingly lacking in this previews for Wish Leaders, Desire Card searching. One of the hiccups for the Leaders is that if you don’t see the Desire Cards you lose out on a ton of advantage, but at the same time you don’t want to run too many. Tagoma really helps out that cause for Frieza. Thankfully only gets a Yellow Desire card because…well we don’t want Black ones searched out. Also can help reuse a Desire Card which is nice.

Savage Shisami

Reminiscent of the last one we got, only he deals with tapping things down rather than keeping them tapped. Also better stats. Again, might be a decent option if Barrier really starts to take over. Solid Side Deck card for FA decks.

Time Magic

Onto the Free Negate portion of the Preview. Yellow’s Gimmick is going back to tapping this down, or in this case keeping them tapped. Problem is…it’s not very good outside of very niche situations. They’ll still be able to untap normally on their turn so this is really in the state of only to be used against Dual/Triple Attackers. Hilarious hoser against Shenron but otherwise stick to Flying Nimbus. Yes this is free, but Nimbus is Nimbus.

Revival of the Emperor

The first Desire Card for Yellow and…well the name speaks for itself. Revive Frieza. A 2 Drop grants it incredible value, especially since we have the 1 Drop Frieza that immediately dumps a Frieza from the deck. Going from Revenge in Motion on Turn 1, straight into Clan of Terror could be a tremendous hoser for a deck. With Tagoma the strategy is clear. Continuously revive teched Friezas every turn to infuriate an opponent. As much of a Golden Frieza fan as I am…let’s be thankful that this can only be played in Wish Frieza.

Personal Ambition

Uh…more cantrips? Because Wish Frieza has Tagoma, this is overkill and unnecessary. There is such a thing as having too many effects that say “Draw 1 Card” unless you’re playing Exodia. You could tech 1-2 of this if you really want to, but between Radar, the DBs, Sorbet and such…you really want another of this?

Death Ball

The last card of today and of course in Frieza tradition, we got an exclusive Extra Card for him. This time the iconic Death Ball and it’s in the vein of a lot of the “Attack Card” cycle we’ve been receiving. Pump the Leader, do a special effect related to that Leader. In this case, shoot something off the face of the Earth if it’s tapped. Now, most Frieza Leader decks, outside of Galactic Emperor usually, are generally heavy on Extra Cards as it is. However, I can never overlook “1 Energy, something dies”. I don’t know if Wish Frieza plays this as it could send them dangerously close to something like 20 Extra cards in the deck. Golden Frieza is a probability, though it’ll depend if we get a new 4 Drop Frieza to replace Set 1 Mecha. Galactic Emperor, probably not, can’t afford to spare the Energy. Mecha…well for one, thank god it’s Errata’d. But…maybe? We’d have to see.

Final Thoughts:

Some solid stuff here. I think Wish Frieza will be a definite contender and if you’ve been holding on to some FA decks from the past you’ve got some goodies to mess around with here. Nothing major for Yellow as a whole, which I’m fine with considering the strength of the color right now.

Next Time, before the next Preview Season Article, we need to have a discussion on “Perfection”.