Good day!
It has been a while since I last wrote something and for that I apologize. When I started out doing this I knew that it wouldn't be a regular thing but I'd at least make it semi-regular. I kind of spoiled everyone early on by writing 3 blog posts in the first 10 days of being up and then stalled out a bit. If you read the "About Me" blog post then you know that I'm a family man and that things get a bit hectic at time. Anyway, that being said, I'm ready to jump back in and share with you a series that I want to try and get out weekly for you all.
What I aim to do with this series is just share with you the brews that I've been testing with teammates and kind of stray from the path of "cookie cutter" builds that you're used to seeing in the Facebook group or larger events. That doesn't mean that this is meant to only be "tier 2" decks but rather things that test well overall and I'd consider for any event. I'll sometimes cover leaders that don't see much play and other times cover the meta leaders but a different take on them. But that's enough of the description of the series, you guys want deck profiles right?
Last week on Shenron's Lair (great site if you haven't checked it out!) Pat O'Neil wrote an article about his thoughts on the meta moving forward post-Mecha Frieza. It's an excellent read and I talked to Pat prior to writing that a week or so ago and we discussed a lot of what he wrote about and agreed on a lot of what the meta should look like now. To reiterate what Pat said, it's kind of a paper-rock-scissors game again which feels great. This is from a macro level of course. From a micro level it can be broken down a little more than three archetypes as you're well aware. Currently I see the format as such:
Cold Bloodlust Decks:
Mecha Frieza
Ginyu
Galactic Emperor Frieza
Golden Frieza
These are the decks that are going to look to still use Bloodlust to protect large, dangerous threats while pushing their already increasing card advantage with efficient removal and great defensive abilities. If you want to just call this "Shugesh Decks" then we can add Bardock to the mix but I don't care for Bardock much (either of them) because you can't play CBL which is a big part of why yellow is so dangerous right now. If you're playing yellow, and have no way to stop Chain Attack Trunks + Zen-Oh, then you're going to be in for a bad time.
SS3 Son Goku:
Red/Blue
Red/Green
Buuhan
Veggies
Apes
etc, etc, kitchen sink
There are 100 variants of SS3 which is what makes the leader so good. To me this is the new StarterKu. The deck isn't exceptionally exciting, like StarterKu, but just does what it's supposed to do *really well* and just better than anything else. It lets you play very dangerous threats while tapping out and then being able to untap 3 energy and protect with cards like Unbreakable Super Saiyan Son Goku. You get to essentially play 8 Super Combos with SS3 Goku which is already cheating on top of being able to easily self-awaken without much effort. Downside being that if you're hand is subpar from the beginning you can get overwhelmed and run over before you know what hit you due to starting with 1 less card in your opening hand and 2 less life. There's not much else to say about this but I expect blue/red (Trunks/Zenoh) and Apes to be the most popular SS3 variants.
Cell Chain:
Android 17/18
Cell
While Android 13 and Mira can technically both play the Cell chain, I wouldn't suggest it. Mira is very good as a midrange deck and Android 13 gets handicapped too much by being force to play like 18-20+ cards that he doesn't particularly have much synergy with. Anyway, the Cell chain isn't going anywhere and you need a plan for it. Chain Attack Trunks + Zen-Oh is a great counter to the chain *if* they don't get the perfect draw of Mira into double Super Combo. The main problem here is that these cards are all searchable through the myriad of tutors available to the Androids.
I think Androids is the best of the bunch and it's also possible that Cell is best built *without* the chain. The Androids in Cell are always really awkward and uninspiring to say the least and it's oftentimes better to just take advantage of his excellent leader ability to control the board. This is especially true against the Veggie chain as you can just wave a magic wand and make sure that no shenanigans ensue. I've posted my most recent Androids build a few different places but it's always easy to find my decks by searching for my user name, ktmjtatta, on dbs-decks.com.
Anyway, you can also add in aggro decks such as Masked Saiyan, Xeno Trunks, Blue Trunks, Vegeta, Pan, and Caulifla to make it a 4-headed monster of a meta but I wanted to just showcase the paper-rock-scissors in that CBL is favored against Cell Chain which in turn is favored against SS3.
Moving on that segues us into this weeks series which is going to highlight two different green leaders, both of which I really enjoy, and dive into what I've done with them. First deck will be Going All In, SSB Vegito followed by Saiyan Delusion Hercule.
Going All In, SSB Vegito
This deck is actually miles better than it looks and is only possible because of how the format has slowed down considerably. In my opinion, and it's a bold statement, All In Vegito is one of the best leaders, if not the best leader, for the Trunks and Zen-Oh combo. Post-combo you have a 25k double strike leader and probably a way to kill whatever they put out. At the worst, if your opponent survives your Zen-Oh turn, you'll have a 20k attacking Leader on the following turn. Mighty Mask engine lets you search for your Super Combo or for removal in Unified Spirit Trunks. A lot of times good players will just leave a 1-drop in play and not combo with it to turn off your awakened Leader ability and being able to search for a Goten + Trunks lets you kill that off. Jiren helps you handle Barrier threats as well as just an otherwise great card. Tien can awaken you as well as kill of cards that aren't in rest position as well. Tien also works really well on your awaken turn because he's essentially a "free" combo card since you can tap 2 to play him, awaken, then untap 2 energy and do what you want to anyway. Bonus points if you also Zen-Oh on this turn to kill them. Most of your cards are Saiyans so Trunks Bridge to the Future is kind of a no-brainer as well. I'm going to play this deck at a local tomorrow and can report back with my results.
Saiyan Delusion Hercule
I know what you're thinking already. Two things: first, HERCULE?!?! and second, another Mighty Mask deck? Hercule gets a lot of crap for being pretty terrible but the deck is actually extremely potent and terrifying to an unsuspecting player. I've heard rumbles of Hercules winning locals around the world and I wouldn't be surprised if versions like this one are the ones winning. What this deck does is smack you in the mouth hard and fast. You're double striking with large threats as early as turn 1. Turn 1 Cabba into Hercule's unawakened ability is going to be at least 25k double strike. On turn 1. After you kill their Cabba you have to just continually deal with threat after threat after threat that are always going to be at least 25k. Hitting cards like Champa and Unbreakable Son Goku with your unawakened ability is just icing on the cake.
Another thing that the unawakened skill does is fuel the drop area for Vegito Here to Save the Day. This is the bread and butter of the deck and the entire reason we're playing Mighty Mask. We can get this turned on turn 4 pretty much every game with relative ease which then clears the way to play our Scientist Fu's starting on turn 5. Be careful with your Fu's. You want to always have a live Vegito so watch yuor drop area and don't mess up your sequencing or you'll be in for a bad time. This deck also sports the suite of "fewer than X cards in your hand" effects like Ghostenks, MCU Gohan, and Vegito since they're basically always live. Tien helps you awaken early but remember that comboing with him off of your leader skill won't put him into play - he has to be comboed from hand.
Don't knock this deck before trying it because if so you're going to wonder what the heck just happened before you even know it!
So I said that I'd be playing Vegito tomorrow but I'm also up for playing Hercule as well. Let me know which deck you want me to play tomorrow in my local!
Until next time,
-JT
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