41 eager Z warriors have travelled from all over Australia to make it to the Brisbane regionals seeking fame, glory and that ever elusive Worlds invitation.
A breakdown of styles and MPs follows:
Blue Tag Team is the most prevalent mastery on the field today with 8 people looking to call on allies for help. Black Devious and Red Enraged are represented by 7 players each, followed by Red Ruthless (5), Namekian Restored (4), Orange Adaptive (3), 2 players each representing Namekian Knowledge and Saiyan Empowered and a single Z warrior representing Blue Protective and Orange Adept.
For MPs, the new Vengeance MPs are well represented with 9 players representing Broly, 6 Cooler and 4 Android 13. Rounding out the rest are Gohan, Yamcha and Captain Ginyu (4 each), 2 players each for Master Roshi and Piccolo and single representation for Frieza, Goku, Android 16, Trunks, Cell and Android 18.
Round 2 Update
Round 2 is now underway with Damien (Blue Tag Gohan) and Rob (Namekian Restored Gohan) battling it out on our stream, which you can view on Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/takgamesau
Round 4 Update
Nick (Blue Tag Roshi) is taking on Simon (Namekian Knowledge Piccolo) on stream while the following players are undefeated:
Jono C. (Namekian Knowledge Piccolo)
Dylan M. (Blue Protective Cooler)
Jacob M. (Blue Tag Ginyu)
Riley H. (Saiyan Empowered Broly)
Nick O. (Blue Tag Roshi)
Simon N. (Namekian Knowledge Piccolo)
Round 6 Update
Final round before Top Cut and tensions are high. Jacob M. with Blue Tag Ginyu has defeated all contenders so far and takes on 2015 World Championships Top 4 player Fahad with Black Devious Android 13. On stream, Gold Coast Z Warrior Dylan M. is piloting Blue Protective Cooler against Jono’s Namekian Knowledge Piccolo.
Top Cut Update
The following players have endured to make Top Cut, listed in no particular order. Congratulations and good luck to them!
Dylan M. (Blue Protective Cooler)
Jono C. (Namekian Knowledge Piccolo)
David B. (Red Ruthless Broly)
Fahad R. (Black Devious Android 13)
Jacob M. (Blue Tag Captain Ginyu)
Nick O. (Blue Tag Master Roshi)
Lin H. (Red Enraged Android 13)
Chris K. (Black Devious Master Roshi)
Top 4
It’s Fahad vs Lin while Jono takes on Chris K. on stream.
Top 2
Jono takes on Lin for the Queensland title honours and is up 1 game to 0 in a best of 3 battle.
Who will prevail?
In the end, the title fell to Jono with a 2-0 win over Lin. We look forward to seeing everyone at Nationals!
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.
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.
Black Swirl provides so much return for so little cost.
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.
Sunday saw 35 Z Warriors descend on Guf Brisbane to battle it out to claim top spot in the first Australian Regional event for 2015. The field was made up of a diverse range of deck combinations, but Blue (31%), Black (22%) and Namekian (20%) were the flavour of the day.
Z Warriors kick off Round 1
Some of the match ups throughout the day were exciting to watch, with a Saiyan Vegeta piloted by Brenden P. going undefeated for the first 4 rounds. It seems some of the control type decks were caught a little short with some of the aggressive decks that turned up in enough numbers to add some spice during the 6 rounds of Swiss.
In a departure from the expected norm, only one Captain Ginyu deck showed up to wield its power, and new fan favourite Blue Piccolo was under represented as well given some of the results coming from the USA. New MP Dr. Wheelo made a great showing with its representation in top cut, and Ralph B. proved that despite some perceived short-comings, Gohan can be piloted with great results.
Brenden tries to best Owen’s Wheelo
In the end it was Ally Deck vs Ally Deck in the final match up, with Ralph B.’s more measured and defensive Gohan Namekian competing against the might of Daine B.’s aggressive Black Captain Ginyu. Gohan put up a good fight, but Captain Ginyu was able to take the final 2-0 in a best of three.
Both finalists have earned an spot at our PAX Australia Invitational event on Sunday the 1st of November in Melbourne.
We can’t wait to see how other states show off their skill, and next up the focus will be on Victoria on Saturday at Guf Ballarat. Make sure you check out the information on the Facebook Event and don’t forget to print off a decklist in advance.
Saturday the 17th of January was the day Brisbane took its turn to show what it has to offer the constructed environment and by all accounts no one was left disappointed. We had a great time with 12 players enjoying
The Brisbane crew turn out to see the Meta
another round of Panini DBZ. It is safe to say a lot of the Brisbane players are sticking close to the Meta at this time, with Blue Ginyu’s and Namekian Piccolo’s running around in decent numbers.
Our own Trent Betts took some time to work out some of the kinks in his Blue God Goku Dragon Ball deck with some mixed results, just to show that there can be some variety in competitive builds even at this early stage. There is great potential out there as was shown in Melbourne, for something to come out of left field and throw itself into the mix.
Winners were;
1st – David M. (Blue Ginyu)
2nd – Luke R. (Piccolo Namekian)
3rd – Michael L. (Piccolo Namekian)
David M. and Michael L. tough it out over a close match
Lucky Door Prizes
SDCC Playmat – Brenden P.
SDCC Promos – Russell A.
Confrontation Promo – Jono C.
Don’t forget to keep in touch with us via Facebook and Twitter to make sure you get all the latest news on events held all around Australia in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. Regular events are now in swing, with the second set just around the corner in early March.
Brisbane’s own Luke Hill also added his point of view to the event to give people a more hands on account of how it went;
With Panini’s return of the Dragon Ball Z TCG I thought I would take the time to write up a first hand account of the first Constructed event in Brisbane. TAK Games has given us the chance to have the game in an Organised Play setting for us to enjoy and this was how the day played out for me.
If you can see a recurring theme here, it’s that Blue and Namekian are heavily supported.
I personally love a good control deck, so I played Red Vegeta. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, Red Vegeta has no control, and yes, you are correct. I didn’t want to play control so I played something highly aggressive which is capable of quick games in either a win or a loss. It’s not the most stable deck, but it’s one of the more enjoyable decks in the format right now. In the moments before the event, I decided to add 3x Red Jump Kicks for an experiment to see how it holds up, and considering how much fun I had with it, I do not regret it. I did not expect to win any games given the massive amount of Blue and Namekian around including one of the hardest decks for Red to deal with… Black.
Round 1 : Blue God Goku “Brickwall Bob” (Brendan)
Great, Round 1 and I get a good friend and a Blue deck, and of all of them God Goku. I know his deck, and I know it has a very high chance of thumping me into the ground. So straight off the line I was on the back foot.
Unfortunately, it did not go well for Blue Goku. 3 Consecutive combats I draw amazing hands for dealing with Blue Goku (One hand was double Staredown to pick all the cards I needed gone). Eventually I draw into a hand of Red Shoulder Grab, Red Double Strike, Red Heel Kick and Red Static Shot and just went for it. His luck really hit a rock bottom, upon drawing a hand of setups and dragon balls leaving him helpless as I made it up to level 3 and start unleashing damage consistently in small doses, eventually piling up to end the game with him conceding defeat at that point. Our decks were polar opposites, and the match up favoured him heavily, but it just did not work with him that day and unfortunately, the rest of the event. His deck was REALLY solid and I have had much trouble in the past with it, but that is how the cards a dealt. Dev Blows picked off all the combo cards he required to win and just kept on attacking.
Red Vegeta 1-0
Having surprised many people with a Red deck beating a Blue Goku, we moved onto round 2.
Round 2 : Blue Ginyu “Ultratarantula” (Russell)
(Insert More Sarcasm) Great, yet another match up which I despise. Red does have critical hits, but the allies are notorious for coming back over and over again so I had very low hopes for this game.
Going first, I draw a hand of Red Shoulder Grab, Red Energy Blast and Red Double Strike. So, I go for broke and enter combat with Shoulder Grab which he immediately blocks. Ginyu’s power which I take for Guldo which I shortly after Red Energy Blast away and it set a mood for the next few combats. Every combat, an ally dies when it entered play until I ran out of luck and starting to stop drawing the cards to deal with the problems.
Eventually Blue Ginyu started levelling up, and I had no real way of slowing him down. He was missing 3 Ginyu force allies which kept him stuck at level 2 for several turns, but it was to no avail and eventually I was destroyed by head knocks and other big attacks. It came down to the final combat I had to option if being able to do, and well, yeah. Didn’t get much in the way of answers for Ginyu and was beaten back by his power for the game. I did get Blue Ginyu down to less than 10 life cards, and kept him from getting his allies out. So I can take a very positive feeling from being able to give the deck a very hard time.
Red Vegeta 1-1
Round 3 : Piccolo Namekian “Dressel” (Lawsy)
So, more challenging fun for me. Lawsy’s Namekian deck is really solid and it was always going to be a hard fought battle, if I was able to get the upper hand. Let’s make this one short, I didn’t. Go wrecked and well… yeah. He got to level 4, never got a Red Jump Kick to hit. None of my major attacks were ever drawn. Just a plain and simple train wreck of a game.
Red Vegeta 1-2
Round 4 : Gohan Namekian “Rad Brad” (I would assume Brad)
Another Namekian which made me roll my eyes back into my skull and slide down my spine. However, this was the standout game of the event for me. The Deck finally pulled off some major combo work to basically go off properly and give people something to worry about, including other matches who saw what was being done.
Red Jump Kick became the key to this match. Vegeta Level 1’s power to keep the anger flowing, and then pop back down with a well-timed Red Jump Kick to get some more cards. Yes, I know Vegeta’s power level is something to be desired, but when I was able to do a stupidly large amount of damage in small bites, it’s something I personally wanted to see happen. He has Dragon Ball 2 and ?? in play, not 100% on the second one now)
Red Shoulder Grab from 3 anger, to 4 and then Vegeta’s level 1 to 5 anger. Get to Vegeta level 2, Red Mastery to turf a random junk card and keep the Red Jump Kick. Vegeta’s level 2 power hits (1 anger from Shoulder grab previously). Red Jump Kick back to level 1. Draw a card. Red Heel Kick (2 anger to 0 anger, and 2 more from power and critical) to Red Static Shot to get 4 anger to ping a level. Draw and Discard. As the critical hit, steal DB2 to level myself down and draw a card. Red Double Strike to level again….
It may have only been small pieces of damage, but it all added up. It was nice to see a small chain of events fall into place in the deck.
Red Vegeta 2-2
In the end, I didn’t place very well, due to the players I beat, did even worse than I did. But for a first time in a constructed event, it was fun to play something left field because I am not 100% happy with the current game meta with Captain Ginyu and Blue keeping their eyes on all the top places. I had a heap of fun running Red Vegeta and for me that is what counts in the game.
Pros:
Trent and TAK Games for bringing the game here, and organising the events for us here in Australia
Red Jump Kick : It just worked
Minsey for winning
Not having to play against Black.
Cons:
Not getting a lucky door prize….. again…..
Blue for being Blue
