Ten Frieza Saga Cards We Are All Guilty Of Using

Joshman here with another list that’s a trip down memory lane. It’s hard to believe that this set was released 13 years ago, but I still remember playing the game at my local and how this set completely changed the sometimes questionable dynamics introduced in the Saiyan Saga. DBM already talked about the cards from this set that we’re all still using, but does anyone remember the jank we ran 13 years ago simply because it was the best at what it did at the time? These are the cards that went into obsolescence as the game continued to evolve and progress. You probably wouldn’t think to play any of these cards now, but if you picked up the game during the Frieza Saga then you are probably guilty of using the cards on this list at one point or another.

10. Chiaotzu’s Glaring Power

That’s… pretty creepy.

A pretty bland energy attack, but during the time of the Frieza Saga an attack doing six life cards of damage was pretty huge. This was the most cost effective and unrestricted freestyle energy attack that you could use at the time. The styles themselves ended up getting some good energy attacks in the Frieza Saga, and with the introduction of Mastery cards in Trunks Saga giving more benefit to running styled cards in your deck, this card quickly started to fade out. Unless there’s some benefit to running Chiaotzu named cards or you have some weird deck based around Majin Vegeta’s Powerful Drill, it’s unlikely this card will ever see play again.

9. Hero Enraged!

Because of the exclamation point, if you ever have to name this card for a card effect then you technically have to shout it.

This card was fortunate enough to be around during the time where the biggest anger gains came from Dragon Balls and other non-combats. Virtually identical to the then unrestricted Enraged, this card was essentially just another quick anger gain non-combat for your heroes. The selective regeneration wasn’t too bad either, and this really was a good card for anger decks at the time since non-combat removal was pretty sporadic. But as Red started to become the dominant anger style and began putting more emphasis on gaining anger through combat rather than set-up and similar cards like Enraged and Blazing Anger! became restricted, cards like Hero Enraged! and Burning Rage! just fell out of style.

8. A Hospital Stay

When the Spirit of the Earth can’t be bothered to heal you…

This card worked similar to Hero Enraged!, but worked it’s way into many decks just for being unaligned and getting the stage gain in a pinch. I’m personally of the mind that anger and stage gain on one card is fairly redundant, particularly in an anger deck, but this card also comes from a time when stage gain was… well let’s say, it was more effective. Most people were still packing Hidden Power Level in their decks at this time, but this card and Power Up To The Most! were still being ran since the lack of huge physical attacks in the game meant that powering up to full meant you could absorb 2-3 more physical attacks. Like the previous card on this list, this card simply went away when non-combat anger gain was no longer effective and running more defensive cards became the more viable option than gaining stages as attacks got bigger and loaded with more “if successful” effects.

7. Just Kidding

I don’t get it.

What an amazing card back in the day! An unrestricted, unaligned Freestyle attack that could remove drills. Before this card, pretty much all non-combat removal came from other non-combat cards. Granted, level hopping was a bit more prevalent and only a handful of decks parked themselves on a level to build-up drills, but boy if you weren’t thankful to get rid of a Vegeta’s Quickness Drill or an Orange Joint Restraint Drill. This card was still a bit useful in Trunks Saga, but by Androids Saga you started to get more cards that could discard/remove drills as secondary effects. Android 19’s Energy Burst has this card beat in almost every way, except for being “Villains Only”.

6. Jeice’s Style Drill

So… are they dancing in front of Majin Buu’s butthole?

Soo… technically this is a Defense Shield, if not by errata then by definition. This card was released in one of the only sets where a drill that has a Defense Shield against energy attacks would actually matter. The very next set introduced Android 20 Absorbing Drill, thus making all previous and future energy Defense Shield drills completely pointless. Still, in Frieza Saga and the very few efficient anti-drill cards in the game at that point made this card an annoyance that was difficult to deal with.

5. Good Advice

The only advice worth it today is Fatherly.

Eight life cards of damage with no drawbacks!?!?! Holy crap, that’s still good damage even at the end of the game! In Frieza Saga, this card was an absolute bomb! I remember when I first pulled this card, I hadn’t seen the Trunks Saga in the show yet (Cartoon Network hadn’t aired it yet) so I wasn’t even 100% sure who Trunks was. Sigh, imagine how much more cultured I’d be if I’d just memorized one of Shakespeare’s shorter plays or some book in the Bible. Instead, I walk around with Trunks convoluted history in my head (plus other Dragon Ball and hentai stuff that’ll never be useful). Even though this card is great in the damage department, simply lacking any kind of utility in modern decks made this the inferior advice card.

4. The Plan

I like to do hoodrat things with my friends.

Same deal as Just Kidding above, there just wasn’t a huge amount of ways to deal with allies at the time outside of non-combat cards. What save this card from being lumped in with all the other non-combat anti-ally cards was that this card effectively eliminated ALL allies. The Heroes really dominated the ally scene at this time, with viable villain allies really only being introduced in this set and giving you level one characters with powers other than Saiyan Energy Deflection. This card still found it’s way into quite a few decks since ally remained a popular archetype, until Cell’s Presence effectively put the final nail in The Plan’s coffin.

3. Yajirobe’s Gifting Drill

One of the stingiest characters is on two “gifting” cards, yet no sword cards despite arguably being the best swordsman in the series?

This card found it’s way into a few of my decks, such an awesome effect at the time and easy to stack a few of these drills if I didn’t feel like leveling. Villains also got Guldo’s Time Freeze Drill, essentially allowing them to run six of the same card (seven if you were Guldo). Actually, this card and Time Freeze Drill were pretty darn broke with Guldo in the Frieza Saga, since no new chart was introduced and Guldo’s power levels exceeded the 25,000 max that the Saiyan Saga chart reached. Only other Frieza Saga characters could even do base damage to him, now compound that with reducing all the power stages of every attack against Guldo (who could run up to seven of these prevention drills, not to mention a few styled drills that also prevented damage). As was the case with A Hospital Stay, as blocking attacks became more necessary and keeping non-combats (let alone drills) in play more difficult, this card stopped making the cut.

2. Dodoria Lv. 1

How can you be bowlegged in midair?

As I mentioned before, Villains really had the shaft when it came to level one allies. Then Frieza Saga came and gave them Frieza the Master, Guldo, Jeice and Dodoria. Dodoria only had a plain “Physical Attack” for a power, but like Guldo (as well as Jeice and Frieza) he completely broke chart. His physical attack against a character at 0 would do a base damage of eight power stages. By comparison, using the current chart you would have to have a power level of 9,800,000-11,599,999 to do a base damage of 8 stages against a character at 0, something Kid Buu doesn’t reach until his LEVEL FOUR! So dropping a Lv. 1 Dodoria ally in Frieza saga was like bringing in Kid Buu Lv. 4 at the end of the game. Only Buu, Vegito and Gohan can even get that high on the chart! Dodoria was an absolute bomb character! Once a new chart hit in Trunks Saga, Dodoria pretty much lost all of his power. While Frieza, Jeice and Guldo are still staples in Villain ally decks, even the newer and better in every way Dodoria Lv. 1 (which has the exact same lore text as the Frieza Saga card for some reason) doesn’t see much action. But there was a time when Dodoria was one of the Top 5 allies in the game, believe it or not.

1. This Too Shall Pass

Too beautiful for this world.

So, I’d say about 100% of the reason why this card doesn’t see play anymore is probably because its been banned. Still, we are better for having lost this card. Matches ended up coming down to who had more of this card in play, and often it’d be a cheap way to nullify a block. This only would’ve gotten worse as time went on, especially with cards like Cosmic Backlash. If you played during the Frieza Saga, then you almost certainly used this card and don’t need me to tell you why the banning was a good thing. Free, colorless counter cards are a dangerous thing in CCGs and, as I’ve mentioned before, something I wish I could further limit in this game. But back in reality, we can all be glad that this card will never make the game a race to get more This Too Shall Pass cards into play. Too bad about Dodoria though.

Later, BroZ!