Introduction
Hello! My name is Elliot, and I am a Professional One Piece TCG Player from Australia. I have recently started competing in Dragon Ball, and I am from team Eternal Magic. In previous formats I have played Broly, Beerus, and Frieza as my main decks, however for this tournament I believe Black to be the best color in Dragon Ball. Thanks to my testing partners who also did very well (John who won, Max who came third, and Kevin who came 11th) who showed me how insane the deck is!
With my limited testing before the Perth regional, I decided I would play GT Goku. I expected that I would encounter some Red matchups, which the leader counters due to the ability to protect your characters from power based KO effects and attacks.
For example, we can defend our Pan versus Jiren so they cannot stick a 4c to the field, and protect our 4c Goku versus Beerus so he cannot be KO’d by Rumshi.
Bardock is the better leader across the board, however it may be slightly weaker into Beerus, which will make me re-evaluate the pros and cons for the next tournament.
Deck Profile
For my deck, I ran a very simple and straightforward list aimed at beating the mirror and blue. Some decks run Pan GT, however I feel the whiff rate on this build is too high, and some slots that are included are simply weaker than the standard cards you would cut (Giru, Para Para, Cantrips, Hercule).
Most of these cards are extremely playable 10k combo cards, and being able to lock on-attack cards is game breaking versus every deck. These cards are also amazing as we generally play them early and use them to fuel our 3c and 5c Bardock’s on combo effects. The main flex spot of the deck I have put in is the Resisting Destiny. I can see it being cut for extra Cantrips, however this card did come up in some tricky games to give a free large swing when I have spare Energy.
The Game Plan
Your game plan for Black is very simple: You want to play your 4 drop as soon as possible. This card is insanely overtuned, and if you can stick it for a single turn, the game snowballs out of control. For this reason, it is important to pair 4c Goku with 10x Kamehameha to clear cards that pose a threat to him (Pan and Vegito for example). If you can do this, you can back to back 4c Goku, which gives you a free 2 energy and 2 cards every turn, which is completely insane.
Into the mirror, the key cards are Pan, Kakarot, 4c Goku, 10x Kamehameha, and 5c Bardock. Pan allows us to bounce the opponent’s 4c Goku, so if you can set it up on turn 3, you can bounce your Opponent’s Goku while developing your own. The deck struggles to deal with a 2 and a 4 on the same turn, so this spot will generally win you the mirror match. Make sure to KO your opponent’s 3c Bardocks and Pans with 10x Kamehameha before they get out of control. Kakarot allows us to win after losing the dice roll, allowing us to play 4c Goku on t3 going first. The hand disadvantage is worth it, as the person who can stick this card first generally wins the game. Lastly, the only answer we have to 5c bardock is our own, so if you can 5c gap your opponent, you will also be in a commanding position.
Versus blue, the same cards are extremely important. 10c Kamehameha allows you to clear the Opponent’s Vegito, which means they cannot use the 4c Gohan to bottom deck 2 of your 4c Gokus. On top of this, Giru is amazing as it allows you to KO Hercule and Sharpner into Haloku, which reduces their combo potential significantly. Versus red, as stated at the start of the guide, make sure to boost up your key targets with your leader ability plus energy marker. Pushing your Pan and 4c Goku out of range of your opponent’s abilities will stop them from being easy to trade into and stop your opponent from KOing your board, which means you will always be one step ahead. When in doubt and versus anything else, just turbo out 4c Goku, gain extra effects from the energy marker, and you will snowball out of control!
Final Thoughts
Thank you for reading, and thanks once again to my sponsor Eternal Magic and to my testing partners from PX3! Hope you have a good time playing FB03 🙂
Thanks a lot for this write up. Rocking this deck on the online ladder.
I only have big problems with blue (death goku). They outvalue me with the cheap 1 costs, the field and the 4drop Gohan which can remove 2 3 drops.
What is the best response to the 4 drop (which is played for 2 mana due to the field) and then combined with modifiers of the value? please some pointers :)
Hey you can follow us in Twitter/x and ask question there. We tagged him in the article.