Hello everyone, I know I’ve been absent for quite a while and I will explain everything in a Reddit post on r/DBSCardgame when this article is posted up. In the mean time, it’s time to get into Set 8 Preview Season and we start with the new decks. Finally, Baby gets some more love outside of simple single card helpers, let’s see if he rises up once again…not to mention finally Super Baby 2 gets to actually exist. But the big one, the queen Android 21 from Dragon Ball FighterZ has arrived to popular demand. Can she bring the Bridesmaid Androids to the top? Let’s find out.

Parasitic Overlord

Baby Vegeta / Super Baby 2, Out for Revenge

Okay first off, thank you for saying Baby Vegeta and not the other way around, that was really annoying. Anyway, Super Baby 2 finally arrives to the TCG and in Yellow form. This Leader is not nearly as flashy as the earlier Machine Mutant Leaders. He’s pretty simple, he’s all about the Dual Attack. He essentially has it on both sides though it’ll cost him a Life on the Front. Now, Dual Attack as a skill is always relatively tricky to evaluate. On its own its generally weak outside of aggro decks seeking to attack as many times per turn hitting small numbers to whittle down an opponent to nothing. Where it usually shines is being teamed up with other abilities like Double Strike, Critical or specific Auto abilities. It seems that Bandai highly values the ability though since Baby becomes a 2 Life Awaken Leader rather than the standard 4, though he does get an upgraded Hybrid Awaken to make up for it.

For a Starter Deck Baby is certainly fine, again this is for newer players learning the game and he helps out with that. Simple abilities that can give way to more complex thought. Will he see play…really depends on the necessity of having a Yellow Machine Mutant Leader.

SS3 Son Goku, the Last Straw

A Saiyan Cabba for Yellow. Pretty standard stuff, and being a GT Goku could be very relevant if support comes out that makes a R/Y GT Deck possible. Good to have, don’t overlook it just because it’s something we’ve seen before.

Super Baby 1, the Conqueror

This guy is simple once the wording is understood. Basically if the opponent (during your turn) has taking 2+ damage for pretty much any reason (there is an outlier or two) you can play him for free. Free bodies are good, and you can play as many of these as you want in a turn assuming you can get them off the board just as quickly. Evolving would be the main play but there could be other factors too. Of course the main issue is that you do have to get that 2 Damage in at some point otherwise it’s just a vanilla 3 Drop 15K which is really bad. Has potential though.

Super Baby 2, Vengeful Rampage

Pretty much the reason you’d want to be on the above Baby and here we have the first showing of one of the two new Keywords to the set, Offering. Simply put, play him and the opponent has to choose to Crit themselves 1 or let you draw 2. Let’s be frank, in at least 75% of situations Offering is giving you a Draw 2. Losing life from a Crit is almost never good and it’s just better to have the opponent gain cards. Still, Draw 2 attached to cards generally works out well.

His actual ability is pretty interesting. Negating on-board skills usually doesn’t matter on offense past Blockers but there are of course, relevant cards and scenarios this matters in. U6 Decks definitely don’t wanna see this drop pretty much ever. Even at a base level, stripping Barrier from cards can lead to getting rid of very annoying bodies. Also preventing them from being used as Combo Fodder can potentially be very potent, taking away valuable defense from the opponent. Again, another blow to U6 that’s gonna end up with a very clunky hand against an onslaught of Dual Attacks, that this card itself will carry during the turn.

I don’t think this is the boss monster to base a deck around but it’s a good tech choice to really punish certain decks, could even see more broad Side Deck play as a 5 Drop.

Battle to the Death

The last card for this starter, Battle to the Death continues the increased complexity in Extra Card design that we’ve had as of late. Now, Extra Card Removal has always been in somewhat of a sketchy place. Generally only 1 Energy cards get played that have any sort of removal effect and even then it’s quite niche. Generally “sorcery” speed removal has to come with a body to make up for the fact that pretty much every card can accrue value when played (hence the design shift to bringing legitimate Counterspells into the game). This card is trying its damndest to see how far they can push “sorcery” speed removal before people actually take it seriously. It shoots ANYTHING at 25K or less to death, Barrier or no. It also has absurd Self-Awaken potential as getting 3 Life from one card is generally rare and it’s not even mandatory. When you’ve already hit a Life Total you’re comfortable with, this still shoots anything.

The sad part is I STILL don’t know if it’s enough for this to see meaningful play. Maybe at 1-2 copies since it serves a dual purpose, Self-Awaken and Removal. But on 2 Energy in Red usually means you’d rather keep it up for Counterspells rather than deal with something that already hit the board (which again, has usually already gotten its value in this game). I want to believe this card is good enough, it reads insane but we’ll see.

Android Duality

Android 21 / Self-Control Android 21

The third fighting Waifu (following 18 and Caulifla) of Dragon Ball has arrived to the TCG. For those who don’t know (and spoilers for this paragraph for those who want to play/watch for themselves), Android 21 is an original character made for Dragon Ball FighterZ. Likely (I don’t know if it was 100% confirmed but it was heavily hinted at) based off of the wife of Dr. Gero and the mother of Android 16, she is essentially a new-age Cell implanted with the cells of strong fighters. She simply wanted to have a peaceful life with Android 16 whom she rebuilt but tragedy struck. Turns out Majin Buu’s (specifically Kid Buu) cells do not play nice whatsoever and left her with an insatiable hunger that send her on uncontrollable rampages. So much so that she accidentally killed Android 16 and did a split of her Good and Evil personalities ala the current Majin Buu. The Good 21 ultimately sacrificed her life to kill the Evil 21. For a Dragon Ball “villain”, let alone one made specifically for a Fighting Game, she was surprisingly well written and it was legitimately tragic when she died. There’s quite a few fans holding out hope that she ends up canonized not unlike Broly.

As for the actual card, being an Expert Deck once again comes with pretty damn good privileges. A 6 Life Awaken usually carries some kind of restriction but hers is arguably the easiest yet. Just have a U/G Card in Energy, that’s it. Assuming that we get enough, and I don’t see that being an issue, she’ll be ready to go by Turn 1.

Of course her Awakened Side shows there’s another price to pay, mainly that you can’t play anything 6+. It is interesting that this is only an issue for her Awakened Side, but if anyone is able to sneak in big drops very early to skate around the restriction more power to you. Her ability is some interesting Energy Toolbox, whenever losing an Energy you can get a U/G back into it tapped but then you can untap a U/G Energy on the opponent’s turn. This will come in handy with the skills coming up making them essentially free. Do note, use the Energy you’re gonna sac off first before going through with it to get the maximum amount of value. There’s a lot of potential in 21, let’s see how it pays off.

Android 17, Mechanical Prowess

Now this card…is a card. It’s a Top 5 Searcher for U or G Androids which is…well, pretty much all of them so that’s fantastic and loose and even gives you an optional discard if need be. The only downside is that he’s Blue so you do have to be on the U/G plan but all things considered that’s not a downside at all. Great card.

Android 18, Mechanical Prowess

Now this card I was mixed on before but I warmed up to it because I read it better. Having any U/G card in energy means she basically turns off any type of aggressive 1 Drop for free. I don’t think you ever want to use this on your own turn much, but on the opponent’s she is very potent potentially. At worst a great sideboard card.

Android 16, Mechanical Prowess

The other upside to 21’s arrival? More 16 cards! Another Blocker, 16 is a free Blocker if you get rid of an energy. Do note he doesn’t even require that you have an Android Leader or anything so Movie Gogeta will appreciate this greatly. Not bad at all.

Photon Wave

Remember when I said that Bandai REALLY wants to push Extra Card removal to see how far they can go to make it playable? Example number 2 above. Reminder that Assassination Plot was printed as acceptable in Set 1 and saw…well, not zero play but minimal (being removal not on a body had niche application depending on format…very niche). Now we get a Board Wipe on 4 that even draws you a card. Yes, it says choose so Barriers live to fight another day but this is still pretty damn big to put on a card. Still, I like this less than Battle to the Death because bouncing carries huge risk in this game. A lot of decks can easily rebuild and continue the pressure. Now if you could somehow pair this with a way to shuffle the opponent’s hand back you have something deadly but even in best case scenarios it’ll require a ton of Energy. I see this as a Sideboard card for heavy Midrange matchups.

Might of the Red Ribbon Army

Now we have a really interesting Blue card. Well the first effect not so much, we already have cantrips galore but it’s fine in a pinch. No it’s the Drop Area effect that’s really good, making it much safer to charge key U/G cards early since you can just recur it back at a later point. Absolutely expect this card to see play in U/G decks.

Android 16, A New Start

Now onto the shiny stuff we can show off the other new Keyword of the set, Revive. This one is pretty simple. If the Revive Battle Card is KO’d (doesn’t matter who does it, keep that in mind if it becomes relevant in the future) you can pitch cards that are specified (in this case, a Blue Card and a Green Card or just a U/G Card) to bring it back untapped but you only get one shot at it per turn. For certain cards that can be potentially powerful and draw a lot of aggro and pain.

For this card…seems it was just added because they needed it somewhere to show it off. It doesn’t really do anything for this card, a Vanilla 15K shouldn’t have much investment put into it unless he gets big support later. However, this card is still good for 21 as his Activate: Main is a trigger for any “Enegy Sac” allowing a lot of value. He is absolutely reliant on 21 being good as a deck but if she is, this will be a big part of it.

Android 21, A Bad Omen

Okay, for real this time this card has Naruto Ambush written all over it. Being able to stash this in the Energy pretty much whenever with the bevy of toolbox effects only to unleash it for 4 Energy is quite good, especially with her ability. Now note, her put in play from Energy ability will put you down one Energy with no respite so be wary. Her second ability however has proven that Bandai is now completely comfortable with printing burn whenever. For essentially free you can kill a Battle Card and Crit a Life. That’s absolutely absurd in every possible way. In 21 it doesn’t even really cost you an Energy, hell it’ll gain you an extra card and an untap. Movie Gogeta gets something though that’s just outright bonkers or even U/G Goku Black and/or Zamasu. Anything that ramps she’s absurd in because multiple of these can represent game ending damage or pressure that’s easy to offset. With all of that it says something that she’s even just TIED for best card in the Expert Deck but she’s fantastic. But yes, she’s tied because…

Android 21, the Beautiful Scientist

Okay, now forewarning, if Bandai just randomly forgot to put Energy Exhaust on this it’s still tied for best card in the Expert Deck. If NOT however, this card is absolutely snapped in half as just having a Dual Energy with no restriction is busted. But the card itself is also pretty damn good too. She is essentially a new age Whis, made to ramp…but solves pretty much every issue Whis ever had. She’s a Blocker so her mediocre power is nigh irrelevant, she gets to choose from Top 7 rather than just the top card, she’s a Dual Land so she’s useful in Energy (obviously even moreso if no Energy Exhaust is legitimately the call) AND she also is removal as well. The main downside is of course, being taken off of 30 and 35K Bodies (not 40K though, your Secret Rares are safe people…and Judge Whis too) so it does lock you out of a few big homerun hitters. Still the downside may just be worth it for the absurd value you get afterwards and may open up the deck space for some either forgotten or unsung heroes.

Final Thoughts:

I feel for the most part the Baby Starter is OK, nothing amazing but gets you mentally right for what’s to come. The Expert Deck is once again potentially crazy good, with two absolutely bonkers cards that may end up being staples for sets to come. Can’t wait to see what’s next.