Victimized by Victorious Drill

Does Victorious Drill need to go or be changed? I think so. No card has had as detrimental effect on the game as good old Vic Drill. Originally only meant to have 32 copies of the card out there (or at least this is implied by the “Top 32” text in the lore box), this card has since gone on to become practically a staple after being mass released in the tournament circuit and now just being a printable proxy card. It is rare to find a deck that does not run this card these days.

FRIEZA WAS RIGHT!

FRIEZA WAS RIGHT!

All and all the card isn’t too great, the only thing that really makes it playable is that it starts the game in play. Other than You’re Invited, this is the only card in the game that does this and at the time this card came out, there was no Majin Buu Saga Freestyle Mastery to keep it around for nearly the entire game or Energy Lob to make it a piece of a combo puzzle. Honestly, the introduction of Energy Lob is when I felt the card really began to overreach and start going beyond whatever the card was meant to do, but I think it was a problem card all the way back to when it was initially released.

This card is single-handedly the reason why casual/slime anger and progressive leveling is not viable in the game. Effectively resetting anger every combat (or at best cutting it in half), personalities that have powers that gain small amounts of anger like Krillin or running a few combat cards with a little bit of anger are almost completely negated. You cannot slowly gain anger with the intention of leveling up with Victorious Drill in the game. Any deck that wants to gain a level or two in the Vic Drill environment must either run enough anger gain to pop up a level in a single combat, run Aura Clash, use Goku Sensei or run one of a handful of gimmick cards that lets you jump levels.

And really Vic Drill isn’t a detriment to the environment for its game effect, it’s the fact that it starts in play is where it becomes a problem. I would be fine if this was a silver bullet card against anger that you drew into your hand and played it as normal, but this is a card that is run simply because it’s a “free card” that starts in play that has a useful effect. Even decks that eschew non-combat cards make an exception for Vic Drill. Really the only decks that don’t run a copy are typically ally decks.

I would propose errata for it that the card either A) no longer starts the game in play or B) no longer lowers anger by two. It would probably still see use with option B, but I expect the card to evaporate from deck lists with option A. So what do you think?

Note: This is just an opinion piece by me and should not be construed as impending errata or a poll for such. Just some friendly discussion.

Later, BroZ

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