Sorry for the delay guys, I just took a small break to avoid burnout and real life stuff came about. But now it’s time to get back to work and finish these final four guides before we get into Series 4 Spoiler season. Today we’re going to talk about one of the most hyped characters coming out of Super, Jiren. I was pretty harsh on him before but does he have what it takes? Let’s find out.

Jiren/Jiren, the Ultimate Warrior

Unique Cards:

Ally of Justice Toppo

Secret Vitality Jiren

Ki Bomb Support, Cocotte

Cocotte Zone

Strengths:

+ Toppo is one of the best flood cards in the entire game, boarding you three Battle Cards for the price of one.

+ Secret Vitality Jiren gives a cheaper version of Mecha-Frieza, the Returning Terror which provides fantastic removal when necessary.

+ Cocotte Zone adds another negation option to the suddenly gifted Yellow suite.

+ Jiren provides his own card advantage on his front side, and the Untap 2 Awaken like Bergamo is very helpful for this type of go wide strategy.

+ Having access to all of the above makes Absolute Justice Jiren an absolute monster of a finisher.

Weaknesses:

– Ole Zen-Oh proves to be problematic yet again (though this can be mitigated if you’re lucky enough to draw back into Toppo to immediately re-establish, this is luck based however).

– Also, Active Battle Card attackers are pretty brutal as none of the U11 cards can do anything special on their own outside of Toppo (who only ends up offering more BCs to the slaughter) and Secret Vitality Jiren.

– Can struggle against Aggro without very specific openings.

Overview:

I was pretty harsh when talking about Jiren during analysis, though I warmed up to him over the course of the Yellow reviews. Over time, and over testing, I’ve come to realize that like Bergamo his abilities (while somewhat lazy in design) are indeed perfect for what his deck is trying to accomplish. Also, his Unique Cards are FAR more important than most Unique Cards in this entire set. Toppo is probably the best card in the entire U11 archetype due to the ridiculous value he provides, and Secret Vitality Jiren provides crucial removal that you can even fetch off of Toppo. Taking advantage of Jiren as a Leader isn’t really all that difficult, and his deck was probably the easiest deck to build out of all the ToP decks (outside of U7 Goku). To the Deck Build.

Deck Build:

Mono-Yellow Jiren

4 Hero Combination Tupper

4 Youthful Bulma

4 Hero Combination Kunshi

4 Ki Bomb Support, Cocotte

4 Hero Combination Vuon

3 Hero Combination Zoiray

4 Swift Warrior Dypso

4 Secret Vitality Jiren

4 Hero Combination Kettol

4 Ally of Justice Toppo

2 Hand Strike Kahersal

3 Absolute Justice Jiren

4 Crusher Ball

2 Bad Ring Laser

Deck Overview:

Deck has a pretty simple gameplan. Go as wide as possible, take safe pokes when you can, finish with Absolute Justice Jiren. As, to my initial surprise, all U11 cards are basically usable it doesn’t leave a ton of flex spots left. There’s not a ton to discuss but let’s get into it.

Discussion Points:

After all that talk about the Yellow Negates, Crusher Ball is the choice?

This one is completely due to Jiren’s matchups. It answers a lot of his worst nightmares a lot better than the three negates can AND sets up Secret Vitality Jiren for a bomb. I would say to side into Flying Nimbus for matchups that go wide as well, otherwise Crusher Ball ends up being a life saver.

Bad Ring Laser?

Honestly just a flex pick. Cold Bloodlust is generally not a fun time for the deck and stopping certain negates at key points can win the game. Not a must have though.

No Over Realm?

Jiren has the same…quirk as Galactic Emperor Frieza. The entire point of the deck is to AVOID having most of your cards hit the Drop. Generally even your cheap OR cards will take a while to get online, and if they aren’t…things are going poorly very fast. If you need some though, you could throw in 2 Time Patrol Trunks but it’s really not all that necessary. The deck goes plenty wide as it is and can dig just fine.

Tips:

Kunshi is quietly one of the best Self-Awaken cards in the game.

I already thought Kunshi was a solid card but he plays even better. You get a very strong effect on top of having consistent self-awaken every turn. It means even against slower decks you will be on time with Awakening on Turn 4-5 for your Toppo launch. Kunshi dealing with Cabbas and a whole bunch of nasty things is just icing. Truthfully I could see Kunshi getting play outside of U11, in a similar vein as No Openings does. You pay one extra energy up front, but for the plus of not having to draw more than one and paying energy for the rest of the game for him. Card’s fantastic, you definitely want to see him early when you can (unless facing aggro…in which case he ain’t doing anything).

Absolute Justice Jiren is not the end-all to the deck.

While AJ Jiren is an absolutely terrifying bomb…he’s not required to win the game. I mention this because there are a few matchups where he’s not all that great, the SS3 Goku matchups being a main one. The deck can definitely win just on the basis of going immensely wide and poking the opponent to death.

Playing against most Red decks is rough, commit to being defensive and pace yourself.

Red generally is not pleasant for Jiren to deal with. Ironically, part of that is due to his first namesake card since it rips through your board like a hot knife through butter. The second is of course, ole Chain Attack Trunks/Zen-Oh the Plain God. This is why Crusher Ball ended up being the choice for a “negate”. Answering Jiren, Fist of Justice or things like Saiyan Cabba early really helps stem the tide. If you get CA Zen-Oh’d at a high life total you’re usually pretty safe. Play very defensively and stay at a high life total so future Zen-Oh’s only delay you a turn.

The death knell against Zen-Oh a lot of the time is being at around 1-2 Life and then losing the board. Even if you live, re-establishing takes time and usually leads to your death without great luck. Staying at a healthy life total really takes the wind out of those sails, especially if you can sneak in some pokes at the opponent. Note that keeping Toppo alive is CRUCIAL to this strategy. If you have 3-4 Toppos available post-Zen-Oh, you become far more likely to draw back into it. If you can re-establish a Toppo after a Zen-Oh, especially if you hit a Zoiray, the opponent is in DEEP trouble.

If the opponent doesn’t have Zen-Oh, the strategy is still the same BUT you have a much better time since you don’t have to re-establish a board. So it’s much easier to keep the opponent contained and will just lead to AJ Jiren crushing them on Turn 5 in most cases.

Final Thoughts:

I definitely enjoyed playing this deck. It’s a lot of fun. It’s not the toughest deck to play really, it’s just a lot of playing out what you have outside of aggro matchups where you need to turn defensive. I hope to be able to pick it up for IRL play, alongside da Trio.

Next time, the final U7 deck (as you’ll see later, I don’t actually count Vegeta as a U7 deck) reveals the Final Assassin.