The excitement for the next Dragon Ball Z TCG expansion Perfection is building rapidly with the reveal of Master Roshi with some nice callbacks to the original Score game on display. Make sure you keep up to date with all the reveals on other fan sites, including our friends at Next Level Z, Dragon Ball Z TCG Wiki, Retro DBZ, DBZ Top Tier, Fanatics Gaming Network and more.

Trent‘s analysis follows:

The Red Ruthless Mastery has given a new lease on life to Red style decks after the release of Evolution, with Red Ruthless Turles and Ginyu impacting on the environment. Red Chest Pierce, with its banish after use requirement, offers these players a way to help manipulate their discard pile to set up for the use of the Red Ruthless Mastery within combat. Its big bonus, however, lies with its hit effect.

Red Chest Pierce’s secondary effect allows you to look at your discard pile and strategically choose to remove those cards at the top preventing you from achieving maximum potential damage in your next action. While the damage this attack generates is unlikely to bother your opponent, even if modified by Red Ruthless Mastery, the hit effect means it becomes a must block for nearly every other deck in the current environment.

The ability to get rid of threats in your opponent’s discard pile helps to limit your opponent’s options when using cards like Visiting the Past. It can also help against pesky named cards (bye, bye, Krillin’s Destructo Disk) and allies waiting to be brought back into the game. It also assists in managing your own discard pile – with only styled cards to call on, you don’t need to delay entering combat to help take advantage of Red Ruthless Mastery‘s When entering… effect.

For our second reveal, we’ve asked Harry, a Victorian player from Team Power Up Gaming to help weigh in with a second perspective. His analysis of Red Chest Pierce follows:

Red Chest Pierce is an interesting toolbox card for Red Ruthless Mastery decks. With the ability to banish unwanted cards in your discard pile, coupled with the fact that it is banished after use, it is ideal for setting up the next attack you wish to reuse.

Furthermore, the hit effect is great not only for removing all the non-styled cards that would affect the when entering effect of RRed Ruthless Mastery, but can get rid of those annoying Piccolo’s Weighted Clothings, free style drills and other named cards in the opponent’s discard pile The downside is the same for you, so this card should be used sparingly in ruthless Krillin or Piccolo. Finally, the damage may only be four stages, but coupled with the mastery, it increases to a straight six. Playing Turles – Shadowy bumps this to eight. Ultimately, Red Chest Pierce is a handy tech card for setting up the right attacks at the right time, while providing discard advantage. Though not a staple, running one or two could mean the difference between winning and losing a game.

To stay up to date with the latest TAK Games Perfection reveals and analysis, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @TAKGames_au.

Game on!

– Trent (@TAKGames_Trent) and Kyp (@JustKyp).

We were finally introduced to Android 18 and the new Black Style Mastery today and the time seemed right to examine what else Android players might have at their disposal once Evolution launches. We welcome back Tobye with analysis on two new Android-themed cards.

Android 17 – Beckoning

Another Android ally to play with!  When I first read his power, my mind ran wild thinking of all the ways to abuse it and deliver game changing damage each turn, with a huge setup count.  Then I remembered the new Black Perceptive Mastery.  Hmmm. He will be somewhat more challenging to use and abuse.

Android 17 – Ally will be great in some extremely board-heavy blue builds, where you block like a brick wall while playing allies and setups, protecting them with Blue Belly Smash.  Then once established throw out a Blue Draining Blast, and unload with a one-turn-kill.

The less logical side of my brain wants to use his bracketed effect to rejuvenate an Android card, in a mad Lord Slug Namekian ally deck.  Running all the Android cards he can with Android Presence, and the old Namekian mastery, you will be levelling up in ludicrous ways.  Not sure what it will achieve after getting to level 4, but hey…

Android Presence

Known for their brazenness, Android Presence sets out to make sure everyone knows and fears the Androids. It is not only powerful, like all cards that allow you to level up, but adds a mental element to a lot of match-ups.

For example, if you are playing a physical beatdown deck, you really want to keep an opponent’s Android 18 on level 1. So if you see 4 Android cards in their discard pile, and have discard pile removal in your hand (say, a Devastating Blow), you will feel compelled to enter combat to banish those cards. Even if the rest of your hand is rather lackluster. This fear can play into the hands of Android players, who may not even be running Android Presence in their deck.

What is also interesting is you do not need to be an Android MP to use this card. While there are not many non-named Android cards for non-Android MPs to run, it’s still possible to get a free level with this card, and there may be some builds that find a way to take advantage of this.

I am very fond of cards like this which are potentially very powerful, versatile, add skill and fear to plays even when not in a hand or even in the game, and are thematically accurate to boot!

As we get closer to Evolution’s release, I am seeing a whole lot of fun and interesting interactions to do with the Androids, and expect Android ally decks to be varied and legitimate contenders.

– Tobye.

To stay up to date with the latest TAK Games Evolution reveals and analysis, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @TAKGames_au.

Game on!

– Trent (@TAKGames_Trent) and Kyp (@JustKyp).

Tobye’s back with another Evolution preview, this time an Orange common. (Yes, sadly we have no more Saiyan cards left.)

While Orange Sideswipe is a card I don’t find exciting, I do find it interesting. While Namek Dragon Ball 6 is the bane of all beat-down decks, there is little else currently being played that negatively modifies the damage of a physical attack.

The only examples I can think of are Garlic Jr. Level 3, Red Blazing Aura and Saiyan Protection Drill and these cards are rarely seen in competitive play.  This coupled with the fact that Orange generally loves to buff its own attacks with modifiers, makes me question how playable Orange Sideswipe would ever be.

But then I think, what if damage modification suddenly becomes a huge deal?  Destructo Disks start losing a lot of value, Turles becomes  weak like everyone else and Captain Ginyu’s constant damage can feel like a pitter-patter instead of a typhoon.  It seems like a very viable way of curbing the current power houses.

So if this is the path taken by the masses in the future, possibly aided by some new cards, I can see where this card might find its niche.

– Tobye.

To stay up to date with the latest TAK Games Evolution reveals and analysis, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @TAKGames_au.

Game on!

– Trent (@TAKGames_Trent) and Kyp (@JustKyp).

In honour of not one but two Saiyan Turles players smashing face and top cutting in the Chicago regionals today, the original Saiyan Prince Tobye chimes in with analysis of another Dragon Ball Z Evolution preview – Saiyan Overhead Kick.

Interestingly, this is the first stage damage attack that searches for an ally, and it has no stage cost! This means even when beat down to 0 stages, you can still pull out an ally to buffer some damage. And with the old Saiyan Mastery, it can even gain you some stages back on hit, really demoralising any physical beats aggressor. This card adds an unquestionably large amount of power to the Saiyan style, and I struggle to think of any future builds that won’t try to take advantage of this card in some way.

For villains, you can gain massive stage damage bonuses via Vegeta and Turles allies or shut off setups with Nappa ally – which would be an amazing way to lead into a combat against an opponent who has a Black Power Up or two in play! For heroes, you can get Gohan to limit anger gain (which is generally very helpful for Saiyan!), Goku to search out drills, or Trunks to help sort out draws. There’s some nice synergy with Goku and Vegeta to be explored as well. While the villain ally set is instantly more appealing to beat-down players, the hero allies can add a lot of utility to create some interesting slow-game builds. This is the card I am most looking forward to in set 4, and can’t wait to display its power!

– Tobye.

To stay up to date with the latest TAK Games Evolution reveals and analysis, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @TAKGames_au.

Game on!

– Trent (@TAKGames_Trent) and Kyp (@JustKyp).

There’s been little love for Namekian style players so far with set reveals (let’s be honest, their toolbox is already jam packed with a comprehensive arsenal of competitive options) but we have a new preview from Evolution that should give those little green guys something more to smirk about.

On face value, Namekian Assistance Drill seems a little over the top. Giving Namekian a card comparable to Black Smoothness Drill? Why, Panini, why?

While Namekian has the ability to re-use or draw more cards for actions, its new drill adds a bit more dimension to how it can play out hands both as the attacker and defender. The good thing is the effect is conditional, but when you look at the card pool Namekian has, you know it’s in a good situation to try and abuse this card.

For Dragon Balls, we already know that Namekian has a great way of acquiring them either through tutor effects like Namekian Dragon Clan and Namekian Planned Attack, and a solid way of keeping them around with the Namekian Mastery. Keep Namek Dragon Ball 1 on your side of the board and you’ve got a nice little set up with another ball to help keep the condition handy. There’s also the ally condition, which players of Namekian Gohan will like. This might give Gohan a little extra punch so he can focus on retaining allies that help him keep control without having to play the full suite of heroes with attack actions. Namekian Confident Burst, on hit, will help meet the condition of the card straight away. While there is a focus in the style to continue to gain levels which isn’t great for retaining your drills, there is already an answer to help you overcome this.

Namekian Crossed Guard, when rejuvenated, allows you to place a drill from your discard pile into play. So working on a similar premise to how players use Namekian Flinch to help retain their allies, Namekian can also regain use of the drill again with some targeted rejuvenation via cards like Namekian Hybrid Defense. This is a solid card that will go a long way to helping the Namekian style keep pace this set.

To stay up to date with the latest TAK Games Evolution reveals and analysis, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @TAKGames_au.

Game on!

– Trent (@TAKGames_Trent) and Kyp (@JustKyp).