Hello all and welcome to a short stint back into Preview Season. Sorry for the delay on articles, but we’re coming back in force. Today, the WMAT Power Booster. WMAT has dropped off a cliff in recent months, outside of a package seeing random hype. Let’s see if we can bring back some hype to the set…and raise those out of print prices! Or if these will be mediocre and leave the set back in the shadows.

Vegeta, Unyielding Temperament

We’ll start off with what I believe to be the worst card in the Power Booster…which is a good thing because this card actually isn’t all too terrible. 3 Drop 15K Crit with an upside is so stock standard at this point it’s almost not worth discussing. But when he’s killed off by basically anything, he replaces himself with a Red 2 Drop or Less. The downside is that those skills are negated for the turn, so the value would have to come from Battle Cards that would gain relevant effects on the opponent’s turn. Blockers are a decent start. The better cards we get that have relevant effects on the opponent’s turn, the better potential this Vegeta gets. Right now he doesn’t have a home but that can definitely change.

Babidi, the Mastermind

Okay, now we immediately move onto the good stuff. One of the Link Duos I absolutely loved in WMAT was the Supreme Showdown Duo. Very strong payoff to playing a WT deck, though with the downside of coming down a bit late and needing at least a mildly established board. Babidi pretty much solves all of that while providing extra fun.

Now if you have Goku and Babidi, you can play the Babidi, grab Vegeta (and you can even stack one you may have in hand already) and pop the Babidi and then put down Goku for a faster Supreme Showdown play. On top of that, he makes it so the duo (and any other Red WT cards you got) can’t get killed that turn, which means Broly is SOL when facing them down. It makes the Link a lot more efficient, faster and even allows you to cut down on Vegeta copies since you aren’t screwed by hard drawing him.

This card is an absolute boon for any deck that wants to play the Supreme Showdown Link.

Dabura, the Insurmountable

This is another card that I don’t feel has a place in a current deck…but I like the design on it. Being able to drop it on board and essentially lock something in place for the turn has legitimate potential. Dabura essentially puts a Mean Look on them so they can’t escape, while they can’t attack as well. In the right format, against the right deck this can be backbreaking. Right now I don’t think it sees much play, but I’d absolutely keep this card in mind going forward for your Sideboard.

I Am Number One!

One of my biggest gripes with some of the Link Duos from WMAT, is that they were designed poorly. The Tiny Rivals were the biggest example of this. Having to pre-establish one, and then go into the other was time consuming and was just far inferior to the Test of Strength Link in the same damn set which was far more explosive. This seeks to fix that and go beyond by only requiring this card and boarding the two.

Now what may save this from being a meh one trick pony is that you can put any Red 3 drop or less WT card onto the board. There aren’t a ton of great options in the color, but there’s enough diversification that the card can work. Idk if this will really get Tiny Rivals on the map, but it’s worth testing and brewing.

Son Goku Jr., Heroic Successor : Vegeta Jr. Heroic Successor

We also have a new Link Duo to bring to the table, and I really like this one. What I like is that it shares design components of both types of Links they were going for. You can pre-establish, but you can also dump both on board at once. Vegeta Jr is really the star here, as he’s a free cantrip at any stage of the game, that also happens to turn Goku Jr into an absolute nuke. 4 Attacks, 2 with Double Strike and 2 with Crit while also untapping a defensive Energy at End of Turn. All for very little commitment and investment.

In terms of proactive plays, this actually outpaces the Test of Strength Link by a lot. They are still better on reactive plays…but with the meta going towards cheating bigger threats onto the board they aren’t as effective as on release. I really like these two and I think they find an immediate place onto the builds (also Blue got all the best Links right now).

Videl, Proudest Mother

Another card to help boost a pre-existing Link, we have Videl. This is essentially a 2 Drop if used right, and is similar to Babidi in that she’s made to board the full Link at once much sooner. On Turn 2 you draw a bunch of cards, have energy untapped and threaten a 25K Dual Attack Double Striker that MUST be answered, and even if it is, Hercule already being established makes it far easier to do the Link later in the game.

Honestly this card is VERY good…with one downside. Like I said, Blue basically has almost all the best Links in the game. Where do you fit the Proudest Link? She doesn’t work very well with the Heroic Successors because she’ll end up shuffling the deck so you’d be forced to save Vegeta Jr for later, bit of a nonbo though it could work if a game goes slow. I guess she can work with the Test of Strength but it isn’t all that special. You also have to use them in Uub which strains deck building even more.

I think this is very good…I just don’t know if she finds a place due to being a big outshined.

Dende, Astute Savior

Now we have a really good tutor. Dende searches basically every WT card in the game with the exception of 2. It’s on a time delay sure, but unlike Supreme Kai of Time, doesn’t come with the caveat of needing to remain on board to get the card which is fantastic. He immediately fixes your Link hands and is just generally an absurd card…if you’re in Blue.

If it stopped there he’d still be great enough to play. But he doesn’t. He also allows you to essentially play a 3 drop a turn later for an Energy cheaper (don’t play a 1 or 2 drop with him, defeats the purpose). I don’t see this ability being played much BUT it being there is a great bonus to set off potential Link plays on the cheap. I like Dende a lot, he should see play in WMAT decks, the challenge will be the ratios with the Announcers.

Mr. Buu, the Mischievous

Well hello Storm Killer number 307. This is basically what Buu is, made to dump truck on Storm when possible. At the very least he does serve as a generic Negate whenever not doing so. Obviously Buu goes as Storm does.

Piccolo Jr., Arena Wrecker

Like a previous card in the game, this is something that I don’t believe is good now…but I’m glad it exists. Having a Field killer, that also doesn’t dump on the few decks that need to be playing a higher cost Field Card is good for the game. Having a check like this will hopefully get Bandai to experiment more with 1 Drop Field Cards.

King Piccolo, Limitless Power

This card…I am still struggling to evaluate a bit. On one hand, the obvious part, he just completely annihilates an opposing WT board for free which is absolutely absurd. But unless WT decks catch fire again that niche is a bit narrow for my liking.

So the question is, is this good enough as an extra finisher for any WT deck in the vein of Over Realm plays? I’m unsure, but the potential definitely exists. I think it’ll depend on how tight the lists are, since this would indeed have to timeshare with the Over Realm cards. I think this card has legitimate potential though, and is of course a backbreaker against other WT decks.

Kami, Ethereal Technique

Another in the Link Helper series, this one…I’m not as sold on. Once again this needs to be pre-established, though at least only for 1 Energy than the 3, and then you have to wait quite a while until you hit 5 Energy (with 4 being Green) AND you have to use a Life for it. In fairness, the Destined Conclusion Link is extremely explosive when it goes off and this certainly does help…I just don’t think it’ll be enough with the amount of priming and conditions required.

Hero’s Mafuba

Hey, a new Mafuba! It’s pretty much the same as the original, only cheaper and in Green! Obviously for being cheaper it comes with downsides though. It lasts one less turn and requires you to have a Green God Battle Card. Honestly the requirement isn’t too tough to manage, as Dende, Kami and Piccolo are all generally in green. Still in most decks they aren’t the best cards but a cheap Mafuba may be too strong to pass up, especially in the current meta.

Son Goku, Savage Great Ape

This card…is so close to being absurdly good, and it will depend if King Piccolo actually triggers him (it shouldn’t…but it’s Bandai so who knows). As of now it’s mainly a 1 Drop 20K with some conditions which simply isn’t good enough. If you can actually trigger his ability reliably though, it’s a monster that puts a massive threat on board immediately. It really just comes down to that. If we can trigger the ability with some ease, he’s great. If not…it’s very middling.

Chiaotzu, the Loyal

The last Link Helper in this set and…it’s okay. Generally you’re going to use this on Turn 4 to board both Tien and Yamcha at the same time. Which would be great, except Chiaotzu puts Yamcha unnecessarily into Rest Mode, which seems to be overkill when he already has the 4 Energy restriction. I think that one little caveat really hampers this card’s, and the Link’s playability.

Master Roshi, Martial Master : Moon-Destroying Kamehameha

Putting these together since the Roshi lives on the Kamehameha. Roshi is…alright. He would’ve been far better without the “Duration of the Game” clause that was unnecessary since there’s only so long you can use the ability anyway. It’s all about grabbing the Kamehameha and…it’s okay. Obviously with the previously revealed Ape it’s a nuke, but I question how good the Kamehameha is outside of that kale. I think it does have potential though, so I won’t overlook it and it does allow Jackie Chun to have a…much needed finisher since it doesn’t use Supreme Showdown all that well.

Mutaito, Skill of a Sage

This card is essentially Crusher Ball but slightly different. By slightly different I mean worse in nearly every metric. Only works on ramped up cards (though at least you can affect something already on the board) and still gets mostly wrecked by Deflect. Just not particularly good at the moment.

EDIT: As it was well pointed out, he actually does dodge Deflect because his actual ability is his Auto and not his Counter, which actually makes him pretty great against the HOM package. Good sideboard option against that specific deck.

Hercule, World Tournament King

Uh…sure, I don’t think Announcer ever struggled to find Arenas but sure. Issue is, the Announcer already has about 5 Million 1 drops he wants to play, especially with Dende around.

Announcer, Witness of History

Well if you play this, you win no questions asked. However you REALLY should’ve won or lost by the time you would even be able to play this. It’s neat and funny jank, but nothing more.

Final Thoughts:

Honestly, a lot of solid stuff here to really help out a few archetypes from WMAT. Blue by far got the best of it with a bunch of hits. I think it’s worth going back to take a look at some old favorites, Announcer especially is gonna take a whole new image I imagine.

Also, expect some more articles in the next week or so, I’ll be doing a poll at r/DBS_Cardgame to see what will be the next one.