Sensei’d Out With Fresko

Some of you may have read the rant I posted on the poll that Retro DBZ CCG made a few days ago on why I feel sensei decks should be changed. While it was poorly pieced together (as rants often are), it’s seems as if Joshman felt I hit on a few good points. He ended up approaching me to put it in article form. Hopefully I’ll be able to get my points across in a more organized way.

Should this be the route of all Sensei?

I really feel as though Sensei Decks should have always worked like Piccolo Sensei. Are Sensei Deck cards really good enough to possibly lose cards that are relied on to either make a deck work, or utility cards that are nearly always needed (like Trunks Energy Sphere)? Before Kid Buu was released, Dragon Ball decks were out of luck. They couldn’t run some of the fantastic cards that are Sensei Deck Only. Unfortunately, we never had a major even with the Z only format up to Kid Buu, so Piccolo Sensei didn’t have a real use until Expanded started.

I understand the initial concern of allowing all sensei decks to act as Piccolo Sensei. People feel that control decks will become too over powered. I personally feel that is not true at all.

Looking back on my time playing control, I feel as though the change would give it a boost, but I think beat down decks will get more out of it. Back in 2004, Joey Dicarlo and I built Orange MBS Gohan Eternal Dragon’s Quest for Expanded Worlds. I’m sure most players remember what the deck does. It acts as the same as most Gohan EDQ decks, running off of Stop!, Momentum, Powerful Followers, etc, to help safely win by Dragon Ball victory. That, combined with Orange’s great control, allowed the deck to play extremely consistently. We ran Piccolo Sensei, and I believe we had something like 2 Black Scout Maneuver, 2 You’re Invited, Huh???, and Recoome’s Vogue Drill. You’re Invited, Huh???, and Black Scout Maneuver are pretty standard Sensei Deck cards for most decks, Recoome’s Vogue Drill was the only true meta choice we made. It was there to deal with Black’s ability to remove cards from the top/bottom of decks. All we wanted was a safeguard against losing before getting an EDQ off.

Had there been a sure choice, we’d have used it. We opted to go with a meta choice. The problem with not using Piccolo Sensei, is that you can lose cards that are just as needed. If playing beat down against control, you can lose Trunks Energy Sphere, City in Turmoil, or any assortment of other needed removal cards. Essentially making your Sensei use null and void.

I already feel as if beat down has an up hill battle against control. Let’s face it, control can shut off beat down’s removal cards (or possibly remove them), they can easily mitigate damage with cards like Android 20’s Absorbing Drill, and they often have the ability to end combat. Beat down’s only prayer is to get off a Gohan’s Kick or a Majin Buu’s Fury, and even those don’t guarantee a successful combat with cards like Hercule’s Dream Sequence. The possibility of losing those needed cards when trying to add more beat control can really hurt.

I had that happen at DieCon 2005. I was playing against Joey Dicarlo, running the Krillin Energetic EDQ deck we had made. My sensei deck is pretty much dedicated to beating control. Cards like Black Pivot Kick, Black Front Punch, Black Star Dragon Ball 6, Don’t You Just Hate That, and more. I Sensei’ed in 12 cards, and lost something like 2 Broly’s Might, 2 Trunks Energy Sphere, 2 Black Evil Glare, a City in Turmoil, and the rest was an assortment of attacks. I didn’t lose one block. I’d have probably been better off not Sensei’ing at all. I gained extra removal, but in place of a lot of my control. After that, he had no problem with combat cards, or dealing with mine as I almost never had backup.

A good card, but is it worth losing a random piece of your deck for?

 

I don’t feel like a Sensei should be a double edge sword. It should be there to allow you to shift your deck towards certain match ups.

I was a big Magic player back in the day. I loved how you could build your main deck into the most consistent version, and fill your sideboard with ways to deal with bad matchups. I feel the same should be in Z. I don’t feel like you should have to pack so much utility in your main deck, watering down your win condition.

Dragon Ball Z also has so many playable decks compared to other games. I’m of the kind who feels that luck should be as little a part in card games as possible. I understand that luck is a part of gaming, but minimizing it is what makes for great decks. With so many decks, luck becomes a much bigger factor. The luck of the match up. You are now hoping to run into less of X kinds of decks, and Y amount of others.

Beat down decks have to run a few more blocks against other beat down decks, while control decks can either block, or just end combat. Allowing decks to bypass what I went through in the example against Joey can really help them be more consistent.

Consistency is the reason why Orange is widely considered to be the best style. It has a ton of control elements with a wide assortment of drills, and a mastery with built in searching. It can already run some of the more match up oriented drills (ie, Orange Halting Drill) since it can just discard them to the mastery for others.

What would happen to Piccolo Sensei? Well, it wouldn’t get used, but guess what? These are Retro DBZ CCG tournaments! If you want to play with Score only rules, awesome. While I would use these rules when playing with friends, others don’t have to use them.

Another discussion of changes with the sensei decks are the Sensei Cards. I feel like allowing any cards in the sensei is a no brainer. The majority of styled sensei cards are pretty awful. And even most of the good ones don’t always fit into the style deck you are playing.

I really don’t feel like there is much discussion needed on this point. We played with it this way in Expanded. As awful as Expanded was, I feel like they got the sensei part right.

New Sensei rules would help improve lower tier Sensei.

I believe with a sensei change, we’ll see a wider array of Senseis used. Control decks not being forced to run Piccolo Sensei can now use South Kai (Goku Ball using ChiChi), or West Kai to help deal with drills. They can also run North Kai when going on the offensive against Orange decks, not allowing them to use their mastery to get drills. They can do all this, while still being able to use sensei deck cards.

Beat down decks can now get rid of blocks to bring in anti control cards, or get rid of City in Turmoil to allow for better draws against other beat down decks.

Most decks should get some sort of boost if these changes go through, but I believe we would see a more stable environment with beat down having a better chance.

Latest Comments

  1. DBM February 29, 2012
  2. the great saiyaman February 29, 2012
  3. Fresko March 1, 2012
  4. Joel March 2, 2012
  5. Joshman March 3, 2012
  6. Joel March 2, 2012
  7. Fresko March 3, 2012
  8. Joel March 3, 2012
  9. Midgard June 17, 2019

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