We are now at the halfway mark through the Australian regionals season, and with Nationals on the horizon, Trent analyses the decks that have won so far in Queensland and Victoria. Both decks showcased the strength of Ginyu and Piccolo against the vast majority of decks making up the metagame down under.

Daine B.’s Black Ginyu

This deck moved through Swiss by the barest of margins, scraping in to 8th spot. From there, Ginyu showed the way he is able to dominate other decks through sheer weight of numbers in actions per combat.

Daine played a very aggressive game in the majority of match-ups. When he was fishing out allies with his level 1 power he would continually go for allies like Jiece to keep the pressure on his opponents. In most matches, this did him little disservice overall, but against Namekian and Blue nabbing Frieza or Nappa might be better tech.

The choices in energy combat cards are very strong. You would have to go a long way to argue about dropping any of these cards. Black Swirl is a card I see too few of in many Black decks and it gives you so much for so little. Being able to deny a potential block, or prevent a crucial card being played against you can be a huge plus. Withering Fire bridges a small gap in Black’s arsenal by providing a way to deal with drills from Orange and Blue.

All in all, the deck is extremely solid. If I could pick one thing I would change about the deck is that it doesn’t have a solid way of levelling on a consistent basis. There are cards like I’ll Dig Your Grave! but sometimes it is not optimal to use the hit effect when the Black style doesn’t deal well with MPPV. With lots of decks being able to generate critical effects, being able to get to Ginyu level 2 is crucial to retaining your board control. I would really like to see the inclusion of Black Overhead Burst for extra anger. How I would fit this in, and my second improvement I would suggest, is reducing circumstantial cards like Black Scout Maneuver and Wall Breaker. Both offer some solid tech, but running three of means that you will be running into these cards more often, and sometimes they can clog up your hand when you’d rather be laying down another heavy attack.

Daine had a great deck choice and piloted it well to the end of a long day.

Tobye writes in with the following strategic tip for this week:

One of the mysteries I come across in competitive play is a lack of life counts going on. This could be due to the fact that I like to play opportunistic-explosive style decks that need to know exactly when to all-in, but it really is a vital piece of information for any player.

If your deck is capable of doing 15+ life cards of damage in a combat, which almost every deck is, you should keep close tabs on your opponent’s life total. This is not just important for knowing when to go all-in, but also, just as importantly, when to stop attacking. If your opponent plays Dragon Balls, the last thing you want is for them to string together a combo of them and steal the game at the vital last moment. Similarly, against a Tenshinhan deck, your opponent will often have a slew of preps at the bottom of his deck. You need to know how to manage these situations well, and knowing when to stop attacking to force them to draw badly for the following 2 turns can be crucial for closing out a game.

And this does not just go for your opponent’s decks. You should always keep very good tabs on your own life deck total as well. There are times when it is really beneficial for you to take the larger life card damage attack and block the smaller one as it may put you within touching distance of playing out all your Dragon Balls.  Or alternatively, early in a game, to see if it’s worth taking a big hit to put key cards in your discard pile to be retrieved (with Visiting the Past, Namekian Flinch, etc.), without it putting you at risk of game-ending damage reach in the following turn.

Finally, it can give you a little room to mind game.  When you ask for a life count and they reply “heaps”, then “42” after you are a little more persistent, that can be all it takes for them to reconsider a combat against you in future. This is harder to imagine when playing something in the meta as they should be able to gauge your damage well. But when you are behind something off meta like blue Raditz or black Nail, that can turn around and end a game in a single turn from nowhere and your opponent has no solid match-up experience, it can be seriously intimidating.

So today’s tip: treat your life in Dragon Ball Z as your parents treat your life, with extreme scrutiny and micromanagement.

– Tobye.

TAK Games are proud to introduce Tobye as a regular writer on the TAK Games blog.

Hey all, it’s Tobye here, and today I am going to gush a little about my favourite new card in set 3: I’ll Dig Your Grave! (IDYG).

This is easily my favourite card of Movie Collection, when it comes to pure, obvious power.  It not only fits nicely into any beatdown deck due to the high stage damage and endurance removal, but is surprisingly good in big damage energy decks!  If your deck relies on landing 1-2 large energies each combat, nothing is more disheartening than your 8 life damage energy being face-blocked by two endurance 3 cards.  IDYG gives you a solid combat in which you can land your augmented Crushing Beam and Orange Power Point and easily swing the game back in your favour.

The second portion of the card, the option to advance both players a level on a successful hit, is where I think this card really shines and is underestimated in current play.  This effect is generally used as a form of tech, to push a Ginyu off level 1 early, weaken a Goku: Super Saiyan God for a combat, or get a Nappa off his ally-bopping level 1 (or from his weak level 2 to his savage level 3 if you are a Nappa player).

For me though, I have found it to be best played under a different mentality: ‘my levels are better than yours!’  There are several high MP levels that are extremely strong, to the point of game ending, regardless of game state.  While this has been shown lately in the America meta with the use of Goku level 4 in Orange, I personally believe there are stronger uses out there, that care a whole lot less about advancing your opponent as well.

LORD SLUG: My personal favourite use of IDYG is Lord Slug in a Namekian deck, with his level 4 giving the ability to use any Dragon Ball you like when entering.  And in Namekian, you can almost always re-use those Dragon Balls!  So even if my opponent is playing an anger deck, I will have no issues delivering a well-timed IDYG that takes me to level 4, as I can then normally use Namek Dragon Ball 2 every turn!  Giving them one level early to lower them a level every subsequent turn is an extremely good trade most of the time.  And while level 4 seems like a long way to climb, Lord Slug‘s level 1 and Lord Slug’s Regeneration often make this breezy, especially when IDYG is thrown in.

NAIL: Now I am a die-hard Nail fan.  I have built more Nail decks than any other personality by far, not just because of his fantastic named cards, but – in my eyes – he has the best level 3 AND level 4 powers! Level 3 not only allows you to return a Dragon Ball to your hand every combat (and therefore reuse it on your next turn), but also adds a huge stage damage buff and raises your anger!  You can also use it to return an opponent’s Namek Dragon Ball 6 to their hand, allowing your damage to come through at full-force, or lift an opponent’s Dragon Ball allowing you to play your own copy of it.  And with the new addition of Namekian Growth, Nail’s level 3 is even more dangerous, allowing you to instantly replay the lifted DB.  And while there is a lot less to say about his level 4, it is no less powerful.  Big damage attack, hand advantage, more DB abuse.  A very good combination of things to have.

Others on the list that I am yet to fully explore are Frieza (who got a massive buff in the form of a new level 2 promo, and a game-ending damage threat level 4) and Gohan (being able to rejuvenate your entire discard pile every time you raise your anger in Namekian is a power that just might be worth trading away your level 1 for).  The issue with the above few is that, unlike Slug and Nail, you don’t have the option of ball-bouncing Namek Dragon Ball 2 to return your opponent’s MP to their lower levels.

So there you have it, my insight into this beast of a card.  Get out there, throw it into some different decks and see what happens when you pull the level jumping trigger – you might be very surprised with how well it works!

– Tobye.

Without further ado, our last two Movie Collection previews are here. We have a common Namekian card that gives Lord Slug something interesting to play with, and a new rare Orange Energy attack that can help mitigate physical attack damage.

Namekian Clench is a great new physical attack, but given its Villain alignment, it can only be used by Lord Slug at this time. It is banished after use for good reason – after a successful hit, it helps Namekian return some of its weapons that may have previously been used or removed by an opponent’s early Black Scout Maneuver or Searching Technique. With the ability to rejuvenate a styled card from the Banished Zone, you can go grab Namekian Overtime to reuse late game, or if you’re playing an aggressive physical deck, you could pull back one of your Namekian Backhands. The damage is strong considering the Hit effect, and helps give Lord Slug some solid damage before he reaches higher power levels. This card should see play in Lord Slug Namekian decks, though there has been some discussion as to whether Lord Slug is best suited for Namekian style. Time will tell!

Orange Uncontrolled Blast is an energy attack that provides another attach effect. It’s a secondary effect, and not a “HIT” so you gain its ability straight away. Orange energy attack decks need to manage their power stage resources carefully, so this will go a long way to helping them prevent some of the damage from physical attacks. By ensuring that your opponent cannot buff their first physical attack, you gain some further leverage as to whether you block it or not. However, it is a double edged sword. If you choose not to block, the attack isn’t that potent and you have Orange Burning Aura Drill in play, you open yourself up this way. While it might not suit a lot of players straight away, this card might start to see some use once the more aggressive physical builds see more play.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our Movie Collection previews, podcasts and analysis. Please keep up to date with us on Facebook and on Twitter @TAKGames_au.

Game on!

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

Red needed more love this set, and it’s been getting it. Lots of it, in fact, to the point where there is perhaps a little overcompensation going on. Time will tell…

In today’s preview, Red Mule Kick, we can see Red receiving some answers to the perceived problems in this style. First, with an Endurance of 2, this adds a little more damage prevention that most Red style players were begging for. While its damage is on the mediocre side, this card is far more useful for its secondary effects.

It nets you one anger, but also provides a much needed answer for both heroes and villains alike for cards like Wall Breaker, which can put a serious halt to a Red style deck’s plans. The fantastic part is the attached card is banished so you don’t have to worry (unless you’re playing against a Black style deck) about that copy coming back to haunt you.

If the attached card is Red, you have another kicker of using a critical damage effect, netting you another anger in the process. Red style has already received some interesting interactions with using anger to pay for effects; this further reinforces Red receiving additional bonuses for previous plays and setups. It will be interesting to see what further Red attach cards could yet be in store…

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Game on!

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