Introduction
Hello! I Tam (Twitter: @Taminat0r_) from Singapore, and I have topped both the Ultimate Battles my country had in the FB03 Meta. Firstly, I would like to thank TCG Top Decks for giving me the honor to provide an article on my recent 1st place achievement in 1Collectibles Ultimate Battle. In the following, I will be giving an introduction to Jiren as a leader, and identifying its pros and cons of the deck. I’ll also be highlighting some edge cards, and what to mulligan for.
Deck Profile
Jiren is a midrange deck, that has good hand size, and sits at a strong 25k base. The general playstyle of the deck is to play to your energy curve, while establishing board presence of strong units such as the new 4 cost SR Jiren and your other big units.
I like to awaken fast, usually by turn 4, so I can immediately park down my 4 cost Jiren for my opponent to deal with. The main aim of the deck is to be able to out value your opponents with the 4 cost Jiren’s interaction with the leader, in allowing you you to draw 1 from your Jiren leader, character, while negating an attack due to the effect interaction. With a built up hand size, and playing into the 7 energy turn, it allows you to effectively call down your 5 cost Double Strike Goku, while slamming down 2 1 cost Marcarita and going all in with extreme power!
I would consider Jiren as a Tier S character to pick into the new competitive environment due to the decks well roundedness. As much as it is a strong character, there are a few Pros and Cons of Jiren which I will be listing.
Pros:
1. 25k Base
Sitting on the base, allows you to require a reduction in combo power, resulting in less resources to defend, and it also grants you a slightly more offensive power in pressuring. Opponents' Leader would require additional combo resources from their hand or board to touch you.
2. Interaction with 4 Cost Jiren
As mentioned, the interaction with 4 cost Jiren is extremely powerful, especially against decks that are not Blue. The card is sticky, and provides a strong 30k body which allows you to push hard into your opponents. 4c Jiren allows you to trigger your leader’s ability, allowing you to draw during your opponents turn. Most important interaction is that as you only choose to trigger 4 cost Jiren’s effect after entering battle phase, due to the awakened leader’s ability, it allows you to negate the attack, as you have already taken damage from 4 cost Jiren. This sick interaction provides an immense value especially if your opponents cannot clear it!
Cons:
1. Inability to Draw once awakened
The inability to draw once awakened similar to Broly when attacking is a disadvantage for the deck. However, with a 25k base, of course the deck has to receive some shortfalls if not it’ll be way too broken.
2. Over Reliance on 4 Cost Jiren
To add on to point 1, you essentially are not drawing once you are awakened, so the deck requires a strong emphasis on having 4 Cost Jiren stick. Against decks that can comfortably remove your Jiren such as Blue, you would definitely have a hard time.
Key Cards:
These key cards mentioned are in no particular level of importance, but rather crucial to your game plan
1. Jiren
Jiren is a 4 cost 30k body which is extremely strong due to its sticky nature. It heavily benefits Jiren leader due its ability to enable you to trigger your leader’s ability, in letting you draw 2 cards during your opponent turns. It also trigger Jiren’s ability in Negating an attack, especially useful against Big Attackers such as Broly!
2. Double Break Goku FS01-08
The 5 Cost double break goku is essentially your winning condition, as well as your trump card! It provides a powerful -20k, but most importantly its Double break! This card is also an edge in the Mirror matchup, as if your opponent only has 1 30k and above body on their field, you can -20k to that unit, and shutting off their Jiren’s ability
3. Marcarita FB03-022
Marcarita is a really strong push cards that helps buff up your 5 Cost Goku during your push turn! It increased you ultimate power output, and it has won me a lot of games both in pushing my opponent to 2 life, as well as finishing them off!
4. 2 Cost Caulifla FB02-007
This card enables you to rush awaken, which is crucial for Jiren in most matchups. The critical ability is especially important in putting in the early game pressure for decks such as Android which is another one of the strongest deck in the meta.
Tournament Matchups
During the Ultimate Battle, I played against Trunks, Dead Ku, and 2 Androids.
Round 1 Dead Goku:
I went Second, and I hard mulligan for Sphere of Destruction and Toppo. With these 2 cards, I was effectively able to remove their 3 cost Vegito which is crucial for their gameplay, thus resulting in them to be unable to deal with my big drops, and eventually winning the game by an inch.
Round 2 Trunks:
I went first, and I started with Sphere of Destruction, and similarly, I was able to remove their Vegito, and they were unable to develop another vegito, thus unable to remove my big drops. My opponent had a hand size of 10 cards during their awakening turn due to the effect of shooting 1 damage resulting in them to have to play really awkwardly on their turn 4. I eventually stalled out to turn 7 and was able to all in him with Double Strike Goku and 2 Marcarita. With 7 handsize, it was tough for him to block my all in.
Round 3 Android:
Went Second this round, and was able to coin out 2 Jiren. As the meta was new, my opponent was unsure of the new interactions, thus he ignored my first Jiren. By safety parking 2 Jiren down, the game was pretty much set due to the insane value generated from both Jiren.
Round 4 [Finals] Android:
Went first, and started with the best hand against Android. I played down 2 Caulifla on both turn 2 and 3. I am not sure why he guarded early, and when he awakened, he had only 5 hand card from what I recalled. He missed his 3 mana Ramp which was really painful for him.
Final Thoughts
I hope this short article can provide you guys with a base insight on what Jiren does, and its general game plan. This decklist was used on the second day of release, so there are a few changes made prior to now.
Do follow my Twitter/X @Taminat0r_ for more deck lists and updates. If you have any questions or feedback on my article you can feel free to message me on Twitter/X, as this is my first short article, so please pardon me if there are any mistakes. I will also be considering to do a more in depth note on both Jiren and Beerus, where I will explain how to navigate the different matchups so do keep a look out!
I will like to have big shout out to my competitive playgroup, who have been testing with me at the best local game store @CaeserCards! Most of their names should be familiar as they are well-decorated players in both One Piece TCG as well as Dragon Ball Fusion World, so please hit them up, as some of them do coaching for both games!
Play Group Members
Shun (@Level100_Evee)
Glen
Alfred (@AlfredOnePie)
Tee (@SFKTeeHanYong)
Jeremy (@JellybeansOP)
Kai (@ahkaionepi)
Ben (@PBJOnePi)
Daven (@JPYP_)
Gavriel (@CaesarCards)
Once again, I would like to thank TCG Top Decks HQ for this honour to write this article, and thank you everyone who have read till this point!