Category: Deck Profile

We all know that Vegeks does milling the best from any previous Black deck. What Vegeks does not have is the Saiyan-only trait as a leader and that is what SS4 Son Goku, Guardian of History provides. Being a Saiyan-only leaders it gives you the ability to play the new Gogeta:Xeno cards. Here is the full list of the deck and I will be diving more in depth into card choices and interactions.

Let’s begin with the Unisons. Paikuhan, Savior from Another Time serves as the core Unison for the deck. Paikuhan is able to give a 10000 power boost to your one drop Battle cards. His -3 ability is very powerful. He is able to play a 6 cost Battle card from the Drop Area or Warp that has Union-Fusion. This essentially gives you access to your “Boss” cards at any time. Mira, Dimensional Superpower serves as a late game Unison. He is able to fix your hand by drawing you a new card and by Warping a Goku or Vegeta piece that you want in the Warp. Miras -2 is where he becomes a threat every time he attacks. -2 Activate:Battle,  For each card in your Warp, this card gets +5000 power for the battle. Every time Mira attacks your opponents Leader, it can be a lethal attack, specially if you have a Hidden Power, East Supreme Kai to give it Double Strike. This will make your opponent want to negate his attack but if you have a Son Goku, True Fighting Spirit in your Battle Area, they will have to send one card form their hand to the Warp. Either way, they are losing cards from the hand.

Supreme Kai of Time, Summoner from Another Dimension is such an awesome card from a design stand point. I hope they make more cards like this. By putting her back into the Deck from the Warp, you are able to play one Black Unison from your hand or Warp. This means you can play Pikuhan or Mira to provide support for your deck. This means that you don’t mind Warping your Unisons because Supreme Kai can bring them back.

The Over Realm cards of choice further assist your deck in progressing your game state. Your Leader has a Burst 3 ability whenever it attacks. This sets up perfectly for your Over Realm cards. Revived Ravager Vegeta can be played as soon as turn one. In doing so, you get a Battle card with Critical that also puts another three cards into your Drop Area. So with the leader skill you can essentially Burst a Pikuhan, Supreme Kai of Time, and a Goku/Vegeta pice. Play Revive Ravager for no energy, mill another three cards, and these cards can be any of the free-play Battle cards that we play from the Vegeks stater deck. You can then use Supreme Kai of Time skill to play the Unison from the Warp, now you still have one energy to play a one drop Battle card. Trunks, Time Regulator serves a similar purpose. When is played, you can draw two cards and Warp one from the hand. You can Warp a Supreme Kai of Time, a Unison, or any of the Goku’s or Vegeta’s that you may be missing to Fusion summon!

SS4 Son Goku, Beyond All limits is another free Over Realm that we play that can serve as a big swing but also getting back any of your fusions that are in the Warp.

All the cards mention above come together to help your fusions. Gogeta, Fearless Fusion can be played as soon as turn one. it is a 16000 Blocker that can get rid of a problematic card like Dark Power Black Masked Saiyan or opposing Blockers. SS3 Gogeta, Marvelous Might can be played as soon as turn two for one energy. It has Barrier to it’s a bit difficult for your opponent to deal with. You can also put it back into the deck to play one Goku and one Vegeta from the Drop Area or Warp. Giving you more bodies and more attacks. Finally, SS3 Gogeta, Martial Melee would serve as the big kahuna. You can play it for three energy, it has Double Strike so it can hit hard. You can also Warp a Vegeta and Goku from your Drop Area to re-stand it. This can be done every single turn. All of these fusions can be brought out be Pikuhan.

Finally, Supreme Kai of Time, Spacetime Unraveler is our Secret Rare of choice. She can turn the tide on a game that may not have been going too well for you. It has the ability to clear opposing Unions, clearing their markers so that their free Counter:Plays are now useless. This enables you to play your fusions without a worry. Being a 40000 attacker is nothing to scoff at either, along with a Hidden Power Supreme Kai it can be a finish by herself. Alongside the Leader having Double Strike, every attack can be deadly.

Well there you have it, my take on the new Gogeta:Xeno cards. Vegeks is the best mill deck out but if Bandai continues support Black Saiyan-only Leaders, this can breath new life to the meta game and creativity on deck building from the community.

Let me know your thoughts on the deck and what your version may look like.

Sincerely, Krash

The Doods

When Bandai begins to announce the new cards for any expansion or main set, my mind automatically goes to how can any of these cards work in older decks. Draft Box 05 has a huge amount of potential meta defining cards that can be put in any number of decks. Looking into the not far future, I had begun to think about my favorite deck, Skill-less. Draft Box 05 has sparked some ideas to update this deck and how I think it can be a fun competitive deck that can fight against the best decks. First lets take a look at the staples for the deck.

The super combo can vary depending on the build but for this one, Temporal Rescue Trunks is the best one. We do not use any Over Realm so it’s always live. 3x Power Burst, 4x Son Goku the Adventure Begins, 3x Bonds of Friendship Android 8 and 5x Four-Star Balls is the standard package more-or-less. You want to see the Four-Star Ball turn one so you can start to gain a big hand size. Android 8 plays a bigger role in this deck then before. Let’s now get into the new Draft Box 05 cards that make this deck a contender.

This is what I am labeling as the control package for this deck. DB05 introduce new cards that work along side Skill-less battle cards. Feisty Chi-Chi is one of the best cards in the deck. She is able to filter through your deck, draw a card and play our star player, Son Goku from the deck. Son Goku along side Android 8 can help control your opponents board. Ultra Instinct Son Goku Monumental Presence plays a key role in the deck. If you control two skill-less battle cards with an original attack power of 10000, you can pay two red energy and play it. So if you control two Son Goku, Ultra Instinct Son Goku can come out to play. He is able to send a battle card with 20000 power or less ignoring barrier to the drop area. This helps in getting of cards that Android 8 couldn’t. Ultra Instinct Son Goku also has Critical so it can put pressure on your opponent. The last key detail of this card is that his attack is 20000. He pairs well with At All Cost Vegeta to summon Gogeta Hero Revived.

So you’re probably thinking, ‘having two red skill-less battle cards on board seems like you’re jumping through hoops just to play Ultra Instinct Son Goku’. You would be correct if it wasn’t for Universe 4 Assemble! This is the card that makes this deck work. For one red energy you are able to play two skill-less battle cards with 10000 power from the Drop area or Warp. This is the card that sets up so many plays. For one energy you get two battle cards that work well with Android 8, Ultra Instinct Son Goku and your leader. To give you an example of a very energy efficient play of how good this deck can control the opponent board, let’s say you have an Android 8 already on the Battle Area and you play Universe 4 Assemble for one energy. You get two Son Gokus on the board. Then your’e able to play Ultra Instinct Son Goku for two energy. Ultra Instinct Son Goku will get rid of one battle card. If you attack your opponents leader with Ultra Instinct Son Goku and combo one of the Skill-less Son Gokus, you are hitting your opponent for 30000 Critical, then, Android 8 will trigger because Son Goku is leaving the Battle Area and you are able to get rid of another Battle Card you opponent controls. Now you still have one more Son Goku to use in combination with Android 8 on your opponents turn, or attack with your leader and combo with it to get rid of another Battle Card your opponent controls.

Lastly, Android 17, Rebel Reinforcements, is the red negate of choice for this deck. For two energy you are getting a 15000 Battle card on the board, negating the attack and Android 17, Rebel Reinforcements gets to play one Red Battle Card with an energy cost of 1 from the Drop Area. This mean you are able to play another Son Goku to use with Android 8 or Ultra Instinct Son Goku. Android 17 can also play Feisty Chi-Chi or Intensifying Power Trunks to put on more pressure during your turn. That is so much value from one negate.

The rest of the deck is self explanatory. At All Cost Vegeta can be used as blue energy or a card to be used for Gogeta Hero Revived. Black Smoke Dragon Eternal Evil is the SCR of choice for this deck. It further helps to control your opponents board, hand, or deck. Napapa can be switched out any other 30000 Skill-less blue battle card. Last but not least, Hidden Power East Supreme Kai can help steal games.

This is my take on the deck. I am pretty excited to build this once I get my hands on the Draft Box. I am also working on a Mono Black Skill-less deck, that deck profile should be up later this week. Draft Box 05 will shake up the meta and I cant wait to start seeing all the unique decks people create. Till next time.

Sincerely, Krash.

The Doods

This past weekend at Las Vegas is one to remember. Between earning my invite to the North American Finals and placing Top 8 in the Daylon Mack Tournament of Power, the weekend was amazing! The team and I arrived on Thursday night to do some last minute deck modifications and off to sleep we went. Kevin, Zach, Mario Matheu and I worked on the deck that will eventually take us to top placings.

On Friday we entered the Las Vegas Regional to try to earn our invites. Congratulations to Kevin Zuniga for making top 8 and Felipez Ramirez for getting 10th. I did not do as well as these two but I did manage to earn my invite which I was happy about. After the Regional was over, we went to Shaq’s Big Chicken. When playing at an event for 8 or more hours, you tend to just snack and not have a full meal. Eating at Big Chicken after a long day of playing was a great way to end the night. We went back to our hotel room and made changes to our decks that quite didnt work out during the Regional. This was in preparation for Daylon Macks Tournament of Power. At first, I was not going to attend the T.O.P. because I wanted to play at the regional again but I am so glad that I decided to play at the T.O.P.

Saturday morning we went downstairs to get some overpriced Starbucks. We were short on time so we werent able to stop elsewhere. Miguel, Kevin Zuniga and I had a free entry to the T.O.P. for topping a qualifier in December so we did not have to make the long registration line. They started the tournament with an opening ceremony that honored many of the talented players in the community. The tournament did not delay for too long and as soon as I knew it, we were in round one. I felt pretty confident about my deck for the day and the results showed. At the end of the 7 rounds there was only one undefeated left and that was fellow team member Kevin Castillo. He beat the competition to the ground! Some of us were not too far behind, I ended the day with a x-1-1 record, Kevin Zuniga finished x-1 and Zach Waldron also finished x-1-1. We were guaranteed to make day two.

We were all ecstatic about making it to day two but more so, we were hungry. It took us some time to figured out what we wanted to eat so we just chose Subway. We went to bed as early possible because we had to report back to the venue at 8:00 AM sharp.

Its Saturday morning and we are ready for some more matches. Top 64 playoffs were about to begin. My first opponent was playing Broly Surge. This matchup was in my favor. We went into time and I won having more life than my opponent. Top 32 is where you would start to earn money. My top 32 match was against Team F.O.E. team captain, Eddie St. Hilaire. I was able to get the Cell Xeno both games and steal the round. Very nice guy. In Top 16 I played against Tim Palacios. He was playing Jiren and we went into time. The deck is very difficult for me to beat. I was lucky enough in the end to win by most life as well. Now we are in top 8. I faced against Eon Hill. A very talented player. In game three I was pretty much playing without a hand, thats how much control he had over me. In the end, he came out victorious and my run ended. On the other side of the bracket, my team mates Kevin Castillo and Kevin Zuniga also lost in top 8. We were so close to having three Doods in top 4. I am very proud of all my team mates, they performed very well. Zach Waldron finished in top 32, also another great performance.

The weekend was a blast. Special thanks to Shenron’s Lair and Daylon Mack for throwing the event. The event was very smooth and I had an amazing time. Shout to Cardforge Gaming for being a great sponsor. Thanks to all my Doods who supported us, lent us cards and for being great team mates. We made a strong showing at this event and we are hoping to keep making an impression at every event we attend.

Here is the link to Kevin Castillos deck profile. His ending record was 10-1! Very impressive! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l29JGB1KOzo

Here is the link to Kevin Zunigas deck profile. He topped 8 both the regional and the T.O.P with almost the same list.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i11CPxgZNM&t=61s

Here is the deck that I took to a top 8 finish at the T.O.P. My deck profile will be feature on Team F.O.E.s YouTube channel.

Zach Waldron’s deck profile will also be up on our channel sometime this week so stay tuned for that.

Another great weekend with amazing team mates for the books!

Sincerely, Krash.

The Doods

Hatchhyack is now a deck that can contest aggressive strategies. With more black cards being added, it helps keep this deck up-to-date and be able to combat the meta. Now that set 9 is out, the new black cards bring a new life to this control deck. The deck is able to combat all the new decks coming out of set 9. The longer the game goes on, the better odds you have of winning. The leader himself helps push for more turns. Let’s explore my take on this deck and ill explain how the new cards benefit the deck:

One of my new favorite cards for the deck is Majin Buu’s Human Extinction Attack. At first glance it seems very generic but if you see how it interacts with the current meta, it is the perfect card to not let the opponent get too far ahead. First, this card helps defend against big attacks while only using one card. This can be used defensively and offensively if need be. The Auto is where this card shines.

If all of your energy is black: When you activate this card, choose up to 1 Battle Card in your opponent’s Drop Area and send it to their Warp, then place up 4 cards from the top of your deck in your Drop Area.

While you are defending or putting pressure on your opponent, you are also controlling their Drop Area. Set 9 introduced multiple cards that want to be in the Drop Area, this card says no. Great Ape Son Goku, Saiyan Instincts is a perfect target for this card. If your opponent places it in the Drop Area, you can now Warp it and they lose that value. Other great targets are Frieza, Mutable Menace, Android 18, Perfection’s Prey, many of the new Universe 11 cards want to be in the Drop Area to be used for recursion. It is also very good against, the mirror match, the new Buu deck and the new Cell chain. You have so many opportunities to disrupt your opponents plays.

Dabura, Darkness Perfected is a great new addition to the deck. Now the deck is able to stall a big threat using this card and answer it during your turn. This essentially freezes the Battle Card for the turn and it gives you time to keep controlling the board. It is perfect to use in the mirror match and stop their big bombs from threatening your board state or life. It gives you a great answer to one of the cards that beat Hatchhyack before, Fu, the Dark Banisher. This will protect you from his three attacks.

Demonic Absorption is another card that the deck needed. One of the decks worst match up was Height of Mastery. Demonic Absorption answers Son Goku, Path to Greatness before they get to that point. Before you had to win the die roll and play Hatchhyack Fueled by Hatred and answer it that way. This card also helps against the new Invoker decks. This is a one card out to SSB Vegeta, Inspired Technique and Golden Frieza, Sovereign Technique. Demonic Absorption in combination with Dabura, Darkness Perfected can freeze their big threat on their turn and you answer it during your turn. Worst comes to worst, this card can be used as combo power. This comes in handy when facing the Broly Surge battle cards that place your Battle Cards into the Drop Area during the battle step.

Last but not least, Black Smoke Dragon, Eternal Evil, the black SCR of the set works wonders in the deck. I am choosing to play this over Beyond Darkness Demigra because it is versatile and can aid you no matter the game state. If your opponent controls many Battle Cards, this can clear the board. If the game has gone long enough and they are about to run out of cards in their deck, this card can win you that game. If your opponent has too many cards in hand, Black Smoke Dragon can help put you back in the driver seat. If your opponent does not answer this card during their turn, you gain so much value from using it twice. It puts a clock on the opponent to answer it and only with essentially two attacks. It is going to be very tough for them.

Hatchhyack, with his leader ability alongside strong Battle Cards, will always be a deck that can adapt to the meta. Regional season is ramping up and the Tournament of Power is right around the corner, this can be a deck to consider. People will be caught off guard and not know the many new tools Hatchhyack has gained. This is my current deck list, feel free to try it out and let me know how it has been working for you. I will be working on more deck profiles.

Sincerely, Krash.

The Doods

Ghastly Malice Demigra has seen a rise in popularity due to one card alone – Demigra, Demonic Overlord. This card helped push this deck to a whole different strategy, aggro/control. It topped the North American National Finals, it came close to winning PPT Las Vegas and it got Russell Cruz his invitation for the Tournament of Power in February. Russell has been playing Demigra for quite some time now and after getting 2nd place he has adapted his deck for the Set 9 meta. I asked him to provide his current decklist and give us some insight for how the new cards interact with this deck:

“Set 9 black cards greatly benefit the new Buu archetype. However, there are a few cards that help Demigra decks. Those cards being “Dabura, Darkness Perfected”, “Bibidi, Primeval Conjure”, and “Demonic Absorption”. Dabura is a great counter play battle card that black leaders needed. When it comes into play, it chooses a battle card, it can’t attack and cant activate it skills. When it comes to your turn, you can play Banisher Fu to remove the threat and continue to apply pressure. The worst matchup that this can be use it for is decks that play SS4 Son Goku a Heartfelt plea, as it’s only outs before is to negate the attacks. Now it has another answer for it”.

“The newest Super Combo for black leaders is “Bibidi, Primeval Conjure”. No life restriction and gives 3k combo power + 1k for each card in the drop and warped area. In my opinion, I would do a 2-2 split of 10k draw Super Combo and the Bibidi because drawing is crucial as Demigra doesn’t have draw power. However, Bibidi is a great closer Super Combo to end games at turn 3-4 when control decks start…controlling the game state”.

“Lastly, Demonic Absorption is the last relevant card coming out of set 9 for Demigra decks. 3 to cast to remove almost any battle card ignoring barrier and send it to Warp. It also has an activate: battle to add 5k power if it becomes a dead card or you’re pushing for game. I would run 1-2 copies, 3 would be difficult to cast and do other plays but if games go long and grindy, you’ll be glad to have this card in hand”.

“There are other generic black cards that would possibly help Demigra decks but I feel these 3 are the most relevant and have the most use. As control decks become more and more relevant, I feel, Demigra Aggro will still have a place in the meta and catching other decks off guard. The deck can go off turn 2-4, having your board wiped will slow down the deck a bit but the deck can still recover as long as you still have “Demigra, Demonic Overlord” in your hand”. – Russel Cruz

Wow, this Demigra deck looks insane. Having the ability to choose between aggression or controlling the board within the same deck is difficult to find. With more and more black cards being introduced into the game, Demigra can take advantage of some of those cards. If you didn’t have a starting point for your Demigra deck, take Russell’s list and give it a whirl. Set 9 is already sparking creativity for older decks to adapt. I am looking forward to seeing Russell play this deck.

With that, I leave you to start using the new cards to adjust your old favorite decks. Be sure to stay tune for more deck profiles.

Sincerely, Krash.

The Doods

I need a break from all these new cards being revealed. Let’s take it back to the T.O.P Qualifier hosted by The Doods and Cardforge Gaming in December. If you didn’t know, Kevin Zuniga won the event with tri-color Broly. Russell Cruz took his Demigra deck all the way to a second place finish! That is such an insane deck that is getting more support in set 9. I will be talking to Russell about changes he will be making to his deck. We also had 3 other Dood members top the event. I was one playing Hatchhyack, Miguel Gallegos who got top 4 and Edwin Rivas who made it to top 16 piloting Skill-less! Let’s take a brief look at their decks and comments on it.

Edwin Rivas has been a loyalist to the Skill-less deck since it came out. He has managed to top a regional and keeps adapting the deck for the current meta. Here is what he had to say about his deck: “I chose blue yellow because yellow allows me to play nimbus while blue lets me play senzu bean and Gogeta 7. Very simple reasons. My toughest matchup is Beerus due to them playing the Whis that can minus the power of kidku and it denies me the advantage kidku brings. I decided to play the deck because it has a good matchup against baby. Having a kidku with multiple Android 8’s meant they cant go all in and it can stop the aggro. Awakening early helps against baby too. I probably wont be playing the deck going into set 9 because the red blue cards keep on minusing power and it will be hard moving forward for kidku to maintain board presence. With the reveals for set 9 that are out now there are no cards that can help it but lets hope the black card reveals have some nice spice for the deck. Who knows maybe Bandai gives us a 3 drop 35k vanillas but for the meantime I will rely on 7 drop Gogeta to win games” I am proud of Edwin for sticking to the deck he likes, I personally didn’t think that Skill-less had a chance but he proved me wrong.

Miguel Gallegos has been playing Broly U6 since it’s inception. He has also taken variations of this deck to regional tops. The card that stands out to me the most is Baby Vegeta, an Unfair Choice. This card helped him cleared out his worst nightmare, Piccolo Assimilated Ability. The Baby Vegeta card can rest the Piccolo and K.O. it. Sure it will cost him a couple of cards from hand but if he is able to win that turn, then it was worth it. When I asked him if he would still play the deck post set 9 this is what he had to say “I definitely would still play the deck because tapping down energy is more relevant now that Zen-Oh Button is gone. Mira, creator Absorbed will continue to win you games that you should not have won”

He also mentioned that set 9 will give Broly U6 new tools to win the game. One prime example is Hit, in Cold Blood that was just revealed today. This card has Triple-Strike which goes in tandem with Broly, the Awakened Threat’s ability to re-stand. On top of that, he flips you opponents leader back to the front making it more difficult to defend. Hit, in Cold Blood will be amazing against Surge leaders. They will not be able to use their Surge abilities.

I am excited to see what Miguel can come up with using the new set 9 cards. Well there you have it. Two decks that are not in the norm to be in the top tables but given the right pilot, it will take you far. Set 9 is sure to mix up the meta game. New strategies are being tossed in the mixed but we cannot forget about old archetypes. They can sneak up and take a spot in the top cut. With all the new cards revealed so far, I will make a post about what I am excited to play with. *ahem* Buu. Let me know what you are excited for and what old decks are getting a boost from set 9.

Sincerely, Krash.

The Doods