In the Dragon Ball Z CCG, I would say a good 80% of the cards are absolute garbage. There’s so much crap in the game, sometimes it’s hard to tell a good card from a mediocre one. I mean just take a look at Where There’s Life There’s Hope, The Talking Ends Here and It’s Just Not Worth It. All three of those cards essentially do the same thing, but only one of them is not garbage. With all the crap and camouflaged crap, it’s easy to see how some good cards would fall through the cracks. Here are ten that I think are worth a second look.
I had this article in the pipeline for a while, but after MCQ26’s great article on the subject, I decided to dust this one off and finish it up.
Adds more restrictions to combat than the UFC.
10. Showdown
Here’s a card that shuts down a triple threat of allies, drills and combat powers. I understand why it’s not used so often, being the double edged sword that it is, but I’ve seen so many decks just get locked down by broke ass powers, drills and allies. This card will make a hole for you to get a foothold back in the match. Obviously if you’re a drill or ally heavy deck, this is not the card for you, but more beatdown focused decks (especially those that use personalities that have “when entering combat” powers) could use this card as an effective game changer.
Home of the Dallas Cowboys!
9. Majin Babidi’s Ship
For most people, there are about two different choices for locations: Winter Countryside or City in Turmoil. The one you play usually just depends on how many drills you plan on using. It’s also no secret that physical beats really got the shaft in the realm of beatdown. If you can’t use Piccolo’s Multiform, any Saiyan Style Mastery or Majin Buu-like power levels, you are probably going to be doing a majority of your beats with energy attacks. That’s where Majin Babidi’s Ship comes in. It’s my go to location for physical beats decks as it severely limits the amount of energy attacks that can be used by the opponent. It also royally screws ally energy beats, as paying four stages for a single attack means those allies are only going to be flinging energy attacks at you every four turns or so. And that doesn’t even take into account the power stages of damage you are inflicting on them.
Someone is about to get teabagged!
8. Knockout Drill
Another good drill choice for a beats oriented or non-combat light deck. This card can really put the hurt on stasis ball decks, like Yajirobe, by robbing them of some really critical non-combat defense like Hercule’s Dream Sequence and Mommy’s Coming Dear. It also nerfs all the non-combat Dragon Ball tutors. If you are able to wipe an opponent during the combat phase, they can kiss that Where There’s Life There’s Hope goodbye!
The Spirit of the Earth heals you... Oh...
7. Land in Pain
It’s like a mini-Black Scout Maneuver that just targets battlegrounds, but that’s all you really need when the number one enemy to many a deck is City in Turmoil. Many people like to run other locations or Gohan’s Nimbus Cloud as their anti-CiT, but unlike those cards Land in Pain doesn’t need to wait for the CiT to be in play for it to be effective. I’ve also seen some pretty neat speedball decks load up on battlegrounds and run this card to knock a 50-card deck down to 20 cards or less. A risky but inspired gimmick deck.
I like how this card can even be used with the Trunks Saga Blue Mastery, you know... just in case!
6. Straining Jump Kick Move
If so many decks weren’t afraid of leveling, you would see a lot less Winter Countryside in deck lists. The reality is though, that many decks, especially drill based ones, are terrified of leveling. There’s always Aura Clash, but sometimes you don’t want to level either. That’s where this beauty comes in. Above all, it does some serious damage in the first place, but being a physical attack means it can sometimes slip under the radar of stasis decks that are dependent on Android 20’s Absorbing Drill and Orange Haulting Drill for defense. The downside of course is that it’s not always the best thing against some decks (Cell Lv.2 and any Supreme West Kai are definitely things you don’t want), and you could also give your opponent an MPPV if you aren’t careful.
BAD TOUCH!
5. Supreme Kai’s Power Hold
Dazed gets around Gohan’s Kick, but not Majin Buu’s Fury. Tien’s Solar Flare will get around Majin Buu’s Fury, but not Gohan’s Kick. But do you know one of the only cards in the game that can get by both? Supreme Kai’s Power Hold. It’s a nasty card that’s good in more situations than just ending combat, although that’s where it’s really going to shine. It’s an “if successful” effect, but that could be your best chance to get out of a bad situation after a combat lock has been played.
4. Heroic Drill/Broly’s Evil Drill
I count this as one card, since they essentially do the same thing just on different sides of the spectrum. Ain’t nothing better in this game than entering combat with a Confrontation or an Android 18’s Stare Down leading the charge. Admittedly, the Broly’s Evil Drill will get a little more mileage since villains have a few more combat utility cards available to them, like Android 19’s Energy Burst and Android 17 Smirks. It would be awesome to use it with Broly, if he wasn’t so level hoppy and Saiyan Style-tastic to play drills.
What level of Super Saiyan gives you a purple, spikey beard?
3. Energy Ricochet
The best freestyle blocks in the game are pretty much devoted to stopping physical beats. Goku’s Quick Dodge and Pikkon’s Leg Catch are almost single handedly responsible for the decline of physical beats. Sure, Android 20’s Absorbing Drill is pretty amazing, but there are several energy attacks that discard or remove drills as secondary effects. There is however one shining beacon of a card that stops energy attacks dead: Energy Ricochet. It raises anger, it lowers anger and it can shuffle itself back into the life deck after use. Not only that but with Endurance 3, it can potentially mitigate all the damage from an energy (or physical) attack. It’s a gift that keeps on giving.
Somebody break Future Gohan with this!
2. Saiyan Aggression Drill
Don’t let the Saiyan in the title fool you, this is one of those drills that have the unique ability to be run in any deck of any style, even with other drills of a different style in play. And the disruptive power of this card is amazing. It can single handedly stop allies dead by denying them power stages! If you don’t think that reducing a PUR by one isn’t devastating, then try playing a few matches against a beatdown deck without Victorious Drill. It’s all about keeping the pressure up, and this card takes care of that in spades. Combo it with a Gravity Chamber or the aforementioned Majin Babidi’s Ship, and you’ll definitely hear this lowly common being cursed. Heck, this card even makes Future Gohan start to look good.
Imagine every energy attack being a potential Saiyan Gut Kick. This card can enable the rare one combat kills!
1. Eyes of the Dragon
Wow, what a one-two punch this card can deliver and pretty much at will too! It captures a ball (in addition to any life card capture from the original energy attack) and can search your deck for any ball, like the numerous draw 1-3 card balls available. This card should be a staple in Saiyan decks that run Saiyan Gut Kick and Red decks with some anger raising balls, among others. Best of all, this is one of those “use when needed” cards, so it doesn’t even take up an attack phase. Why is this card not in every deck that plays energy attacks and Dragon Balls?
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Nice article and definitely agree with some of the picks. Quite surprised to see Knockout Drill on the list, but agree with cards like Supreme Kai’s Power Hold and Heroic Drill. =)
Land In Pain wasn’t under-used as far as I’m concerned….loved the ability to look through your opponent’s deck, and shuffle yours in case any DB’s were at the bottom…
I originally had Startled in its place. I felt that LiP was a good card that I just didn’t see a lot of. I’m not saying these cards never got played, but I feel that they should have seen more play.
No krillin’s power tap?
An argument could be made for several cards, but I felt that Krillin’s Power Tap saw enough use in the decks that need it to be included in my list.
Man, everytime I threw together a deck I looked at Eyes of The Dragon, and usually just pulled myself away with some other card choice, but definitely under rated card. Also the Straining Jump Kick gets well deserved props.
I was actually contemplating doing a list of cards that changed the way the game was played, and SJKM was on the list. But with the flurry of lists and nostalgia we’ve seen lately I figured I would forgo that concept.
Might still write an article in more of a “memoirs” style, but anyway, great read!
Good list. Eyes of the Dragon is a bit iffy. If it wasn’t restrictive it’d be a lot better. Still underrated though. Showdown is easily the most underused and agree about Heroic Drill/Broly’s Evil Drill. Yes, decks use CIT but still it’s like having an extra copy of Staredown/Confrontation in your deck. Same with VQD and Expectant Trunks. No real reason not to play them in beats.
You don’t play them in beats because a defensive hand of Showdown, Expectant Trunks and Broly’s Hero Drill is very bad. They’re great, useful cards, but if you run every great, useful card you end up ruining your consistency, and in a deck that is already using TES, CIT, and a handful of other, more useful cards, that consistency can be ruined very fast and very easily.
Enough people realize this that really good cards end up, rightfully, on lists such as this one.
Showdown… Oh god. I remember using that to wreck just about everything. Whenever I used it people would give me that look as if I did something wrong. There’s nothing like entering combat, shutting down EVERYTHING, and then beating that control deck to a pulp in one combat.