Back to the old grind of Preview Season. Welcome once again, and today we’re gonna talk about the Red Cards. Red made out the best during Tournament of Power, providing a great boost to the Veggie Package along side some sleeper contenders. Will it continue its rise to prominence? Let’s find out. This will also be the first Preview Article to have an accompanying video, let’s see how it goes.

Here’s the first video to accompany an article, the Text Based Preview will be below it.

Hercule/Bundle of Confidence Hercule

That’s right, THE CHAMP gets another Leader Card to add to his legacy! Like his previous Leader Card, this one is quite unique though it’s not as outlandish. He once again falls below the power scale of Leaders with a 5K Front Side and a 10K Awakened Side. Not nearly as low as before, but still a power tier below all other Leaders for the most part. Now he does have a bit to make up for it. If he combos during Hercule’s battle, he gets a draw. Not too unlike Trunks or U7 Gohan, but he isn’t restricted in what he must combo to draw which leaves open a lot of room for potential. Also unlike the other two, he gets that ability both on offense AND defense, which is crucial since he’ll have to be comboing a lot. Also different, he gets 3 Draws on Awaken rather than the typical 2. So Hercule is destined to see a bunch of cards very quickly.

Now the downside is that…again, those Power Numbers. Especially in a format where you have Trunks Lineage and U/R Aggro running around with a bunch of 10-15K attackers, not even a Senzu Bean will save you from the onslaught. He’ll also struggle to outaggro other Leaders as he’s not a Blue Leader, so no Unyielding Spirit Trunks and no Legendary Flute. If that disparity ever lessened off though, Hercule actually has legitimate potential. Don’t sleep on him.

EDIT: Of course, now that I actually check the news I see Flute is hit to 1. This gives Hercule a bit more leeway. I still don’t know if it’s enough BUT I’d feel a lot less anxious about really testing him out.

Heroic Duo Videl : Heroic Duo Son Gohan

The lovebirds are here as a Partner Duo and…well here’s where I bring up something I also brought up back in the Tournament of Power set. Mainly, how the design team is either divided up or communicates during the construction of a booster set. I brought it up previously because the Maidens and the Trio de Dangers of TOP were of similar design, but the Trio was designed far better in general compared to the Maidens. A similar thing is happening here with the Partner system. In the previous two colors we had a lot of cards that were only good when both Partners were on the board. Sometimes you’d have at least one OK partner alone but you really needed both to be solid. However in Red that goes out the window in favor of what I was suggesting previously. That the cards themselves are playable on their own merits and get a good bonus when the appropriate partner is on board.

We see it first off here. Now Gohan…well Gohan isn’t all that playable regardless. You wanna shoot a weenie that bad there are a lot better options. Videl however is fantastic. It’s essentially U7 Roshi but for Red. Red ABSOLUTELY needed this, or to be more specific, Non-Saiyan Red Leaders needed this. For Saiyans, they have Unending Awakening which is still fantastic and even Time Kicker for Caulifla, Kale and Kefla is gaining some merit in the current format. But Non-Saiyan’s only had Vados’ Assistance which is…okay at best. Videl gives them a far better option. Then if you happen to be playing Gohan…for whatever reason, she becomes a 10K which is not irrelevant. Videl’s great, a good boon to Red in general. Gohan…probably won’t see play outside of very specific formats.

Tiny Rivals Trunks : Tiny Rivals Son Goten

Now these two are back to the older version of Partner design, though not as crippling. They’re OK options on their own, 3 Drop 15K Crit is nothing new at this point, Goten has Barrier (sadly doesn’t help Fusion shenanigans in their case though). Together they become 20K Double Strikers, which is obviously insane on Trunks, and is fine on Goten. Really the biggest issue is that they’re 3 Drops and thus quite slow. Probably a pass unless something comes along to speed them up, in which case they can be formidable.

Vegeta, Power Misused

Typical Super Combo we’ve seen every color so far. Good, will be used, nothing else to say.

Mighty Mask, Powers Combined

THIS however is not typical. For one, I believe this is the first time (correct me if I’m wrong) that we’ve gotten two different Super Combos for the same color in the same set. Secondly, Red who had basically gotten a bunch of generic Super Combos (which aren’t bad…just boring really) gets a really unique one. It’s similar to Hoi for Hirudegarn, but more targeted. Pitch a card and instead of Drawing 2, you tutor up a Red Goten and a Red Kid Trunks with 15K or less power. Now, because of the Red restriction it really takes away a lot of the potential strength of the card (though two of the high priority Trunks targets outside of Red can’t be used with this anyway so…) but something like this always has potential to get very strong, VERY fast. The targets aren’t great as of now, but when we get more and more Gotens and Trunks, don’t be surprised to see this Super Combo make a splash. Plus for those diehards who really wanted a “pure” Gotenks deck, well here you go.

Secret Treaty Hercule : Secret Treaty Android 18

Now again, one of those duos where I feel like there was no communication between colors. Compare Roshi and Shen who require each other to even work otherwise they are vanilla cantrips. While 18 still holds that design, Hercule is far more versatile as he can at least draw a card with ANY other World Tournament card which means he’s usable even if you don’t have 18 on hand. On top of that, he gets to combo even while tapped (great with Hercule Leader). I don’t know how much play he’ll see but he sure as hell has more of a chance than Roshi/Shen simply because he’s a lot more freeform in his card advantage gain. 18 probably won’t unless you’re all in on drawing cards with this Hercule.

Hidden Power, East Supreme Kai

Okay so this is essentially a new Champa…but with a slightly better body in case you have to play him? Honestly he only really has one true upside compared to Champa and that’s the fact that Grand Supreme Kai can search him out directly. Otherwise, same Combo Costs and both are Gods so same synergies really. I don’t know if this is a potential case of good redundancy, we’ll have to see how much players really wanted a Champa 5-8 in their deck. Maybe Vegeta, maybe Masked Saiyan, hard to say right now.

Dark Duo Babidi : Dark Duo Dabura

I’ll say it right now, this is by far the best Partner Duo we’ve seen in the entire set so far. Say it again, BY FAR. And they’re COMMONS! How are these guys not Rare? Babidi actually has some gas on his own, the ability to untap Battle Cards when played. It’s a bit of a price, but the potential is endless. Also note, because he’s a Babidi, Umbral Blade Dabura is now extremely relevant, especially since this Babidi has Barrier.

The money though is Dabura. Say it with me. We have Foreseeing Hit 5-8. Yes, he doesn’t have Double Strike. Yes he doesn’t get the insane hand peeking that Hit does. What he has in response though, are a couple of things. 1, he can hit any card, not just Battle Cards. Considering a lot of decks are shifting to a more Extra Card based defense to deal with Foreseeing Hit, this is very relevant. And 2, if the opponent does not get rid of Dabura, those cards STAY GONE. That’s just absolutely insane in every way. Now if the opponent does get rid of Dabura right away they can get those cards back a bit faster, but it’s usually not so fast that it’s a strict downside compared to Hit.

Dabura is absolutely insane and honestly between him and Umbral Blade…it makes Dark Duo Babidi worth playing as well (plus again, Babidi has potential in his own right) if you want to go down that path. Dabura on his own though will most definitely see a ton of play. Red adds another 4 drop to its mantle of ridiculousness. Remember the days we only had Frost?

Tainted Power Spopovich & Yamu

Well…I’ll give Bandai credit. They’re not giving up on Babadi Leader. However I really wish they would. There’s no saving that Babidi. This card is really only usable in that deck and that deck shouldn’t be used.

Pui Pui, Magician’s Lackey

2 Drop 15K Crit sees more and more printings, though it really hasn’t broken open anything. Not bad, Pui Pui exists.

Razor’s Edge Yakon

Now Yakon is one of the most interestingly designed cards we’ve seen in a while. Has a ton of flavor from his appearance in DBZ. He eats up ki from the opponent to become more powerful, but if he eats too much he self-destructs. Here, every attack the opponent does gives him a 5K buff, after 5 attacks he’ll die. The upside is, he can become very huge. …that’s the only upside. He’s easy to kill, doesn’t accomplish much and sends a ton of cards randomly into the depths with him. Though it’s hilarious with the above card because you can consistently get him up to 30K power before he bites it. I love the design and flavor of the card, it won’t see play though.

Babidi’s Spaceship

The last card of the day, a new Field Card. Now, the potential behind the card is great. A consistent +1 every turn that the opponent can’t interact with, fantastic. The downside…only Dabura is actually a good target and the card only searches the top card of the deck (though honestly that’s probably for the best). No matter what the card is on top, if it’s anything but Babidi’s lackeys, they get put to the bottom which is irksome to say the least. If we get better Yakons and Pui Puis, this card is insane. Until then unless you are DESPERATE to find Dabura, you’re better off leaving this off the deck lists.

Final Thoughts:

Easily the best color revealed so far. Dabura is an All-Star, Videl is a godsend and we have interesting design all around. More of this please Bandai. Next time, things get Blue as we jump into the future.