Hello all, and we’re finally about to be caught up on Previews. The Super Rares are here, where do they take these new archetypes? Do they help old ones? Do they just plain win the game? Let’s find out.

SSB Gogeta, Fusion Onslaught

Ah, the sweet siren sound of payoff and MAN is this great payoff. It’s pretty rare we get Burn effects in the game, but this is very potent burn. Even when it’s not winning the game, which it probably will quite a few times it’s played, it’s still two free damage that the opponent is not getting back because it’s essentially Critical Damage. The opponent trying to stay above water at 3 or 4 Life gets brought in for a very rude awakening when this comes in over the top and now every attack suddenly threatens lethal and they can’t afford to use up any of their on board battle cards for protection. It was already scary to go to 2 in this game, against Movie Gogeta it’s outright suicide. Fantastic Payoff to the Red Movie Gogeta archetype.

Golden Frieza, Indomitable Emperor

Heh heh…remember when I was badmouthing Frieza, the Finisher earlier? Oops. This card, turns that card extremely worth it because this card is absolutely SNAPPED. It’s Great Ape Baby on roids, and you know how much I like Great Ape Baby so I must make this. This card basically reads “If you play this, the opponent cannot play a Battle Card for the rest of the game”. Of course that also applies to you, but you’re the one with a 30K Critical beater on board already. It’s a hefty price to play this Frieza, but he pretty much wins the game the second he hits the board because Frieza, the Finisher will wipe it for you so you aren’t behind when this comes down.

This deck is going to be immensely potent. Stall until the Finisher/Frieza IE play and just win. Only a couple of decks in the game will actually be able to answer this because they have other ways of removal that aren’t on a body. Card’s stupid good, day one buy for me.

Prodigious Absorption Majin Buu

The return of Buu SRs and we got two of them to talk about! We’re going to talk about this one first for a reason I’ll get into in a second. This one alone is pretty solid. 20K Barrier is no slouch. He needs a Gotenks for his effect, but that has become quite easy now that we have a Gotenks Super Combo. So in theory when this hits board you get a 20K and a 15K and as long as this is on board you get an additional 15K every turn. A Token strategy with some tooth to it is great. Then whenever you finally get board with Token production he stashes himself to get the next SR and you can grab him later. It’s a pretty great bridge card, I like it a lot. Also, yes he can get other 7 Drop Majin Buus but he can’t really take advantage of any of them so it’s not really worth it. Save those for your other parts of the archetype in Bring Back Buu and Prelude to Villainy.

Ultimate Absorption Majin Buu

Now we get into this beast. He comes out for 4 Energy, but then gets to Untap 1 which is fantastic. 25K Triple Strike on pseudo-3 Energy? Absolutely bonkers on its own right. But if you’re able to get an Adult Gohan under him, he’s also repeatable removal…while also acting as a 25K Dual Attack Triple Strike which is cuckoo bonkers. Now the downside is needing that Adult Gohan…oh wait, just like Gotenks, Adult Gohan ALSO happens to be a Sparking Super Combo. Also both Gotenks and Adult Gohan have some decent tech options in Blue (Quick Thinkin’ Gotenks and a couple of niche Gohan options) to make it relatively consistent. I absolutely love this as payoff to the archetype.

Broly, Limits Transcended

Whew, we have to go a ways back to even remember the Broly cards, they were previewed quite early. We finally get to see the big payoff for the Green Movie Broly Chain. Was the wait worth it? …eh. Honestly it’s pretty much the same as the 6 Drop but with beefier stats and can deal with Barrier Battle Cards. I will say that dealing with Barrier is not a nothing ability, it’s a big deal especially now. But for all the work you put into bringing this monstrosity out, it almost seems a bit underwhelming that it’s realistically the only big upgrade you get out of him. It’ll still get played in the deck because you want something for the 6 Drop to level up into so you get more draw power, but I’ll admit I’m a bit whelmed.

Paragus, Rampage Trigger

Hmm…did this card really need to be SR? Eh. Like the Paragus for the old Broly stuff, this one grabs the necessary 1 Drop Field Card from the deck and plays it immediately. Unlike the old Paragus, it won’t cost you an extra card to do it and said Field Card isn’t life or death for the deck. Still I think I would like the ability more if it also grabbed from Drop Area so you could be a bit more liberal with the Control Mechanism.

He has a second effect to sac himself and something else (could even be the Control Mechanism) to tutor most of your Brolys which is fine. This card is a solid card…I just don’t think it’s SR worthy. It may not even be played in many slots in the deck. It’s fine though.

Broly, the Supreme Berserker

OG Broly support from the top rope! This card is pretty deece for the ole Set 1 Broly (or the Movie Promo if you wanna go that way I guess). Still sticks to the Evolve plan, but gains Barrier for his trouble alongside the Critical. The ability to attack and either get a free peek into the hand to get rid of anything, or become a Dual Attacker if the opponent is low is great. The only issue is that it doesn’t really fix the underlying issues that the old Broly archetype had. Better payoff is nice, but the actual framework needs a huge overhaul. Nice to see it still represented though.

Finishing Blow Son Gohan

We finally get to see the big Guardian Angel payoff and…it’s pretty good. Just really hope you’re not playing against Blue and their Dimension Barrier because the goal is simple. Get this out, proceed to win game with the opponent having no Energy available. I hesitate to say that this is really worth building a deck around though. This is a lot of hoops for a very straightforward skill that has counter-play that is legitimately out there. I think Gohan needed to do a bit more to make the work worth it.

Boujack, the Plunderer

Okay…so the playability of this card, and by extension the entire Brigade, will really come down to how they rule his second Auto Ability in the case of multiple cards untapping at once (like say, during the Untap Step). If he triggers for each one, this card’s busted. If he only triggers for one, this card is not great. Due to how he’s worded I’m leaning toward the former, but I’m having trouble finding good precedent. The closest I’ve found is Unending Destruction, Android 13 which I believe does trigger multiple times when his condition is met multiple times at once. In which case Boujack is really freaking absurd. Even if you don’t get the mass tap down (which will probably be difficult in most cases), the opponent is likely to have a few cards tapped down going into their turn and will lose cards. Then for every turn the opponent doesn’t get rid of him, it’ll be even tougher. Then lastly he can give himself Dual Attack which is…fine I guess. Nothing too crazy there. Just a matter on the strength of that second ability.

Son Goku, the Adventure Begins

The SR we saw a bit early but I decided to wait until now to preview. This card REALLY brings the Vanilla Deck home. It does everything you want. Grabs a Four Star every turn so you can use it liberally, and grabs Big Strong Bois from the deck or drop on the cheap. I mean, it’s really straightforward but in this case VERY good for what it brings to the table. Expect to see a Vanilla Deck Profile soon enough.

Super Shenron, Ultimate Wishmaster

Well…this escalated quickly. If you somehow can play this dude on 8, proceed to win the game. It’s pretty damn clear on what the goal is, and the God clause is pretty easy to meet. Main issue is…why play this on 8 when you can likely just win the game on 7 with Gogeta instead? That…is a pretty big issue to overcome, this card honestly feels pretty win-more. I think it would actually be strictly better to just play Fu instead, at least that way you get an attacking body to go with it with less restriction.

Final Thoughts:

Most of the SRs are fantastic additions to their respective archetypes, and make me excited to build quite a few of them. Even the weaker SRs have the potential to be great if the right things come along. I think this is a great package of SRs, to cap off what should be a very exciting set.