Hello everyone and welcome to another of my “make an article on a whim” days. This has come as a result of a noticeable trend that we have after any major shakeup in the TCG, whether through big booster releases or a big Errata/Restricted List Change. That trend is…a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon of “Cell Chain is about to dominate the metagame!” This happens quite often and yet…the domination never comes and Cell Chain often puts up mediocre results, rarely winning any bigger events. Today we’ll discuss why that may be the case, and whether the recent ban or the upcoming set will change the Perfect Being’s fortunes. But first we must talk about exactly what the Cell Chain is.

The Cell Chain

Essentially the Cell Chain is formed on the back of Growing Evil Lifeform Cell, who will Union-Absorb into Evolving Evil Lifeform Cell and then go into Perfect Force Cell to drop the opponent down to 3 Cards in hand (and possibly kill something) at the cost of 3+ cards from your own hand. Also periodically Power-stealing Cell and Vile Replication Cell are teched in as branch choices in case going into either Evolving Evil or Perfect Force isn’t ideal at the moment. As of this writing 4 Leaders can use the Cell Chain (as Perfect Force requires an Android).

Of the four, each have their own niche. Cell himself provides extra removal, the Miras provide the Mira Chain along side small differences, and of course Android 17 makes the 17s and 18s either average or undercosted. In most players’ opinions, myself included, Android 17 is generally considered the best Cell Chain Leader.

In theory the Chain and the deck based around it is very potent. Sit on strong defense early, poke the opponent to get their hand up as much as possible then preferably on Turn 3, Cell Chain them down to 3 while getting them to a low life total and bleed them dry the rest of the game. It’s such a power play that can outright end games, it’s quite consistent due to the multitude of ways to draw or search Androids and even their defensive suite lines up quite well in the current metagame. So why the hell has such a deck suffered? You’d think it’d put up better results, but it sporadically tops at best and almost never wins.

The Problems with Cell Chain

It’s a Very Linear and Obvious Strategy

Simply put, most Cell Chain decks are aiming to do one thing and that’s get down Perfect Force Cell at the opportune moment to finish out the game. It’s a very strong strategy. But it’s linear as hell. You have to dedicate so much deck space just to getting the Chain off consistently. 12+ Cell cards (depending on tech choices), at least 6 each of 17 and 18, and then usually things like Android 20 and Dr. Gero to search out pieces. Over half your deck is spent on nothing but the Cell Chain and that’s not even taking into account defensive options to not die, alongside Over Realm options and Super Combos. At best you could be left with around 8-12 Flex spots to do something different with the deck. The second you telegraph Cell Chain (usually just by flipping your Leader over) the opponent will immediately know the great majority of your gameplan and if he’s a player worth his salt, already has his own gameplan in mind to combat it.

There’s Very Little Semblance of a Backup Plan

Simply put, if you’re in a matchup where the opponent plays around Cell Chain or just outright counters it in a variety of ways there’s pretty much no Plan B. Initially, and the reason that Android 17 is generally considered the best Cell Chain Leader, is that he offered a Plan B, which was Android Beatdown. Now that your 17s and 18s were undercosted and eventually pumped, you could just play a slightly neutered version of an Android Tempo Deck and at least attempt to get there. The problem is while the quality of cards to do this with have increased…it’s nowhere near enough to make a neutered version of the strategy work against the current crop of decks. There’s also one other reason the neutered version of Android Tempo fails as a backup plan.

Most 18 Cards Are Bad

Unlike her brother who has continually stepped up his card quality in the last few sets, courtesy of his breakout performance in the Tournament of Power Arc, 18 has absolutely struggled to find any footing. Simply put, most of her cards suck even with the Cost Reduction. At best you have Exterminating Energy Android 18, which when 17 Leader is at 4 or Less, is legitimately strong. 4 Drop 25K Double Strike forcing a discard on swing definitely has legs. But that’s about it and even then it’s often not used because it’s a Heavy Combo in a deck that’s usually forced into tapping out or using most of its energy so you can’t afford it. And you need at least 6 18s to make Cell Chain work, because the last thing you need is to have most of the pieces together and be missing an 18. So you have to run some chaff to make it work which leads to poorer overall deck quality in the face of opposition that can get past the One Trick Pony. There’s one last big reason though I think the results are lacking.

The Cell Chain Itself Isn’t As Good Anymore

Dropping your opponent to 3 cards before used to be the ultimate death knell, especially when backed by Over Realm and Super Combo support. Now…it really isn’t a huge deal. Most decks can play around it, either by just efficiently playing their things making the prospect of completing the Chain not worth the time or effort. You can branch off into the tech Cells instead but none of them have Union-Absorb of their own which means you immediately start from scratch if you want to get it off again. There are other decks that can just recover immediately afterwards and not give a crap. Any Red/Blue deck can keep Chain Attack Zen-Oh nice and handy for the immediate backcrack. Other decks like say Hirudegarn can just churn back out some card advantage to make up for the lost. Hell even the new Stormfirst Krillin will be up to a decent handsize the very next turn (why people thought initially it was another Cell Chain victim is beyond me). The Cell Chain just isn’t the scary boogeyman it was before.

Can Things Change?

So far the prospects aren’t looking great. The top decks at the moment are fantastic at creating card advantage and value, while also using it efficiently enough to not get smacked too much by the Chain. Waiting on other decks to get changes is not going to be enough, so some innovation will have to take place.

Lineage Swap Engine

Yes yes, the groans are palpable but hear me out. The Cell Chain had a grand total of one representative in the Top 32 (going as far as Top 16) and it was a player using a small Lineage Package. In theory, it makes sense as it does do a couple of things the deck struggles with. Gaining card advantage, and putting on early pressure to force the early Awaken for Cell Chain to hit harder. The only “downside” is that instead of using the inherent negates that comes with the Cell Chain, to make up the Yellow you must use Flying Nimbus instead. Not a huge downside though because…well, when is Flying Nimbus ever a downside?

Possibly Looking to Another Leader

Like I said, most of us consider 17 the Best Cell Chain Leader…but it might be time that we actually start putting that to question again. If you think about it, outside of making Limitless Energy Android 17 an absolutely stupid cheap 3 Energy…17 Leader no longer offers as much to the Cell Chain. The early Awaken isn’t all that beneficial right now and as mentioned, in most cases the Androids are okay companion pieces but nothing all that fabulous on their own (outside of Limitless Energy). It might be time to look back to big daddy Cell, the originator of where the Chain started. He does offer some helpful abilities in the current meta. Or maybe it’s even time for Mira to finally arrive. He offers a solid amount of Card Advantage and is a very consistent attacker on his Awakened side to cause the opponent troubles (those Crits matter post-Chain). Though I would consider holding off on Mira until Set 5 as unless your name is Announcer, going into an event with a Black Leader is asking for 300 jabs to the face from Swap decks and you sitting there praying for your new Super Combo to come soon.

In order to move a metagame ahead you have to question established status quos. The status quo of 17 and Cell Chain itself needs to be questioned. Or maybe, a very radical idea…

Possibly Going a Different Direction From Perfect Force Cell

I’m going to preface this with a forewarning, this is just a bit of rambling and mad scientist coming out but again…it’s better to make these observations and discussions and have them fail than to never have them at all. It’s all about looking at every angle you can to find the best path.

Anyway, maybe an Incomplete Cell Chain isn’t the worst thing in the world. What I mean is, this whole time we’ve been sold on the fact that Perfect Force Cell is one of the most powerful plays in the game and it is. But in the process of really streamlining ourselves towards that we could be missing out on something else. What have I established previously. Cell Chain takes up a lot of a deck’s resources, 17’s cards are very good while 18’s pale in comparison and the strategy is very linear. What could potentially answer all of these issues? Not playing Perfect Force Cell. Instead a possibility is that instead of the Cell Chain, we use the “Cell Toolbox”. Now, what I’ve discovered about myself over these past couple of years is that I like to gravitate towards either Control Strategies, or Toolbox Strategies. I adore proper Toolbox Strategies because, at least in theory, you have the ability to answer anything and the deck’s ceiling is completely related to your own skills and knowledge of the game. The thing is, Cell has quietly been building his own Toolbox suite as of late. Growing Evil Lifeform Cell actually has 4 Choices to go into (well 5 if you count himself…but don’t do that).

That’s quite a few options and they all answer something different, which is the exact thing you want out of a toolbox.

Evolving Evil – Removal, small card advantage, allows siding into the Cell Chain

Forceful Strike – Stickiest body thanks to Revenge, mini-Anilaza effect to pressure the opponent late.

Power-Stealing – Self-Awaken with mild Hand Control

Vile Replication – Pure Card Advantage

That’s a lot of different ways to play the game for 3 Energy and mostly lineup well against the current suite of decks. In most cases, while I was a hater of the card, in here Vile Replication will often be your best target as the card advantage is great and the tokens can actually do something, especially getting after Lineage stragglers. Evolving Evil gets you crucial removal to get rid of any annoyances and Power-Stealing can help you meet important Life Checks. Forceful Strike is probably the one straggler but late in a game it’s not a card the opponent wants to deal with.

The best part is that the deck will look like Cell Chain at first glance and the opponent will play you as such, while you can lean into a more flexible strategy to counter whatever they’re doing. If you suspect the opponent may be onto you, you side in Perfect Force and some 18s and shock them as you legitimately do finish the Chain.

Again, this is just some mad scientist rambling…but maybe it isn’t as well. It never hurts to test and check.

Final Thoughts:

This article took quite a while to write as I often got preoccupied with something else and my thoughts are a bit broken up and drifted, while I also discovered other angles to talk about. I hope you enjoyed it and hope to see you again next time.