In the DB Super Card game, it seems one thing is for certain. Preview Season Never Sleeps. We just got done with Colossal Warfare, the Ultimate Box came upon us and now we’re onto the next Extra Booster, the World Tournament. We’ll see if this set improves upon Tournament of Power. Due to how the cards work, I’ll even have to take a bit of a different preview style. But let’s have ourselves some fun!

Jackie Chun/Jackie Chun, the Mysterious Fighter

Even Jackie Chun getting a Leader before Master Roshi! But the Chun takes no prisoners. Also note for this set, it seems we’re only getting one Leader per color (or we randomly have SR Leaders…pls no). His front side is the typical generic stuff so we’ll just go to his Awakened side.

A consistent 20K Swing with no conditions is generally solid. It’s not something to overlook for consistent value. ESPECIALLY when paired with his Permanent ability. Attacking a Battle Card (I’m guessing mentioning Rest Mode is future proofing for later cards that could allow Leaders to attack Active Mode) means your opponent cannot combo whatsoever. That is absolutely enormous. Now, do note, this does not stop the opponent from using card effects to increase a card’s power. So things like Senzu Bean or Cabba’s Awakening would still be fair game. Other than that though, Jackie Chun represents a guaranteed kill that’s nigh impossible to interact with if the opponent has a Rested Battle Card. At 20K power as well, it threatens many Battle Cards for little to no resources. Poor Bergamo gets lit up pretty free by Jackie Chun. Even when he’s not threatening Battle Cards, those 20K pokes are just nice to have over the course of a game.

The best thing I like about this Leader though is the shift of design from ToP in the sense that he is NOT reliant on World Tournament cards…or really anything. He’s good on his own and can be used in any way you want, with whatever you want. Considering the strict design of the ToP Leaders, I’m pretty happy to see this. I like Jackie Chun, decent Leader.

Future Martial Artist Son Goku

The 5 Life Super Combo for World Tournament Leaders. Pretty standard as of ToP, still pretty good. Also note it’s a Saiyan thus easily searchable, potentially searchable as a World Tournament, and is a Goku: Childhood. Otherwise, typical run for all WT Leaders most likely.

Toughened Up Chiaotzu : Toughened Up Krillin

So this is the change I have to make for WT previews, due to the big theme around this set. Sets of two cards based completely around each other, done from the fights of the World Tournaments in each color. They also have that awesome connecting art. But as these cards rely completely on one another to work, it makes all the sense in the world to preview them together.

The goal of these two is to curve Chiaotzu into Krillin. Chiaotzu on his own is the epitome of nothing special. Quite mediocre actually, a 1 Drop Blocker rarely if ever sees play and the 1K Power doesn’t really do any favors. But when curving into Krillin he does get the draw AND he gets the pump up to 15K which is nice. But outside of end game scenarios you don’t really want to swing with him as not only do you need him on board for Krillin to do his thing, but dropping more Krillins grants more draws. I really wish the pump lasted until the end of the opponent’s turn as it would’ve provided more synergy with his Blocker Keyword.

Krillin for his efforts, gets to become a static 20K Crit Attacker on 2 which is quite strong. And pretty necessary considering how they power crept 2 Drop 15K Crits in Colossal Warfare. In theory, a 20K Crit Attacker on 2 Energy that cantrips is absolutely insane. But is it enough to run a subpar 1 Drop to make it happen? Probably not? The biggest issue is that if Chiaotzu dies, you have to reestablish him constantly and without him, Krillin is a 2 Drop 15K Vanilla which is not good at all. Considering we’re in a format where a lot of people are dedicating deck slots to killing weenies, that’s not a great place to be. If there’s more payoff to having WT Battle Cards though, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this pairing more, or if the format gets away from weenie aggro and hate.

Unending Moves Tien Shinhan : Unending Moves Yamcha

The next pairing and it’s of one of the most iconic World Tournament fights and where the Yamcha/Tien pairing really got its beginning. This art is really freaking sick by the way.

Now for Tien, as we’ve seen, 4 Drop 20K Double Strike Barrier has now become the standard for typical 4 Drop stats. Still solid as always. Now we get to see more of the new theming which is one of the pair essentially knocking the other out (of the tournament) for some upside. In this case a Draw 2 and a Rest Mode Battle Card kill. Now essentially that’s a Plus 2 which is generally great, and Tien is decent on his own merits. This is good, you want to have a card that’s solid on its own right, then gets a fantastic bonus for his partner being on the board.

Now Yamcha…he aight. Like Krillin, he becomes a 20K Crit on 2 with his partner on board. But Tien being a 4 Drop, you’ll be waiting a lot longer to see it, hence having Barrier. The goal with Yamcha is, drop him early and sit on him until Tien hits board. Then swing with Yamcha for your Crit pressure and pop him off for the pluses. It’s not a bad strategy at all. If World Tournament gets more searchers (and the format slows down a tad) then this could be a relevant pairing. I like it.

Master Roshi, Martial Meister : Master Shen, Martial Meister

The final non-SR Pariing for Yellow and it’s two old men talking about how things were in their day. They’re essentially the same card. Each of them tap the other to draw a card so essentially they draw two cards. Now if the opponent were to ignore them, this would be an insane draw engine. Without that though…they’re just kind of worse cantrips.

Who knows, maybe the Galactic Emperor could make this work. Instead of protecting bigger battle cards, he’ll just protect a Draw 2 Engine post-Awaken, that seems pretty good. Outside of that, don’t see a huge future for these two.

Doublechop Nam

Remember when this guy was one of the baddest men on the planet? Good times…good times. Anyway, he’s here to recapture his former glory and I’d say he’s making a damn good attempt at it. On his own merits, he’s essentially another Rest Battle Card killer, but on a solid body and he threatens to do it every turn unless the opponent answers him. So he gets a kill and potentially eats up an attack. On that alone, he’d have a little potential though he’d have to compete against Kid Goku and Teen Gohan.

However, when you have a Yellow WT Leader (just Jackie Chun for now) he becomes INSANE. Now the downside is, no he does not get to kill two cards a turn even with Dual Attack because it’s a Once per Turn effect, but the upside is that he gets to untap with Barrier after every kill. He essentially becomes Kami’s Power Piccolo without needing another Battle Card. With abilities to tap cards, Nam can become a nightmare for the opponent to deal with.

Absolute staple in Jackie Chun and honestly COULD make a case outside of him though he faces stiff competition.

Ginormous Strength Giran

Ah, Goku’s first opponent in the WT. Poor guy got a tough draw. Anyway, typical 3 Drop Crit stats. His ability lets him tap someone down for a while, not bad. Not particularly great though. Decent pack filler, probably great for Limited play, but otherwise a pass.

Stenchful Bacterian

Krillin’s first WT opponent, defeated thanks to not having a nose. Yes, that was a thing that happened. Anyway, Bacterian is okay. Some self-awaken, taps down a card to potentially swing at it. Honestly I don’t think it needed the Life Condition for the ability but as it is, probably won’t see any play since the ability is only on play and not every turn.

Risque Ranfan

Ah, one of media’s original THOTs. Nam wasn’t having any of that…after a while. It’s essentially Bulma but better in ability. That Bulma never really saw a bunch of play, I don’t see Ranfan getting much herself. Maybe as a tech in Jackie Chun but that’s about it.

I’m the World Champion!

The moment where Jackie Chun won the World Tournament because Goku couldn’t get a last word out. It’s pretty damn simple. It’s a Pot of Greed (but what does that do?!) if you have a Kid Goku in your Battle Area. The first thing I’ll say is THANK GOD Mecha-Frieza was errata’d before this.

Anyway, the card is…honestly just okay. It’s hard to argue with a 1 Energy Draw 2, but as of now the pool of Kid Gokus make it hard to really utilize this card. The cheapest is really No Openings Son Goku which says something. We also have Explosive Spirit Son Goku and a SR Goku in this set, both 3 Drops.

I think you’ll need at least 8 copies of Kid Gokus in your deck to even attempt to use this. It’s hard to justify No Openings though when Bardock, the Progenitor exists and the same for Explosive Spirit because Ultimate Potential Gohan slots right into said Goku’s Lineage package. Is a Pot of Greed enough of a payoff to playing what may just be more inefficient cards? It’s worth testing but asking me now, I’m not convinced.

Final Thoughts:

First off, yes I know that the SR Jackie Chun and Goku have been revealed at Gencon however I’m just gonna leave them for SR day to keep everything tidy. As for these cards themselves, I like the theme and I think ultimately more of these cards will have a chance to see play than the majority of ToP cards. If nothing else, it’s a neat theme that will grant us fantastic art.

Until Next Time, Keep Fighting Because If You Don’t, Who Will?