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I.Q.'s Crew

Cell Games Overview

IQ’s Crew

Cell Games, the newest expansion of the Dragonball Z CCG, was released this April. The set has had a profound effect on the playing environment thus far, and will only continue to dominate as players become more familiar with the cards. Introduced in this 125 card set were : 2 New Game Mechanics, 2 New Victory Conditions, and 6 Preview cards for the World Games set releasing this summer. Let’s take a look at the best stuff from Cell Games.

ENDURANCE:

Endurance is the 1st new game mechanic. Its purpose in the game is to reduce massive damage from attacks like Villain’s True Power and Raditz Flying Kick. Some cards have endurance values, which means the card counts as 1 + the endurance value for damage. If you wish to use endurance in your decks, you must declare a Tokui-Waza, and remove the card from the game when you discard it during damage (if you wish to use it for that attack). The card with the most endurance (aside from TF10 “Are You Tuff Enuff???”) is Namekian Restoration, with 10 endurance, meaning you can take a hit from a Villains True Power and suffer no damage at the cost of removing this from the game (if luck has it that it is on the top of your life deck). Endurance gives Dragonball Decks and decks like Red with low block count a chance to survive and not be hampered by hyper-offensive decks like Black and Saiyan.

FOCUSED ATTACKS:

Focused attacks are perhaps the most popular of the new items in Cell Games. These attacks might not seem to hit for a lot of damage, but they often will hit, and some have amazing “if successful” effects. The rule behind focused attacks is, they cannot be stopped by multi-blocks (Time is a Warrior’s Tool, Mommy’s Coming Dear, etc) or Defense Shields. Some to note are Blue Energy Arrow (#43) which only does 3 life cards of damage, but if it connects, you get to remove your opponent’s top 10 discards, and Orange Aggressive Tecnique (#75), a focused physical attack doing +2 power stages of damage, but if successful all of your energy attacks will do +2 life cards for the rest of the combat! Focused attacks can’t be stopped by the evil Blue Style Mastery either, so expect to see a lot of vengeance in upcoming tournaments ^_^

NEW VICTORY CONDITIONS:

Dragon’s Victory : This is quite the interesting card. Only useable when you have 4 anger, this card allows you to either raise your opponent’s anger 1 or keep it at its current level—but if he’s got 4 anger too, you win the game! This will take advantage of decks that lack anger control, and also bring back older personalities such as Raditz from Saiyan Saga who happen to have a particular nuance with this victory condition. Cosmic Backlash: Perhaps the most controversial card in Cell Games, Cosmic Backlash can easily win 1st turn. It’s a simple physical attack, and it allows your opponent to draw 5 cards into their hand. This EASILY garners a first turn win, because the odds are not in the defender’s favor to draw a block, unless they’re playing Blue Mastery. Evil combos with this card are : Krillin’s Solar Flare to disable physical combat blocks, or even worse, Stunned, to make this a guaranteed victory vs. Trunks, Piccolo, and Krillin. Definetly be prepared to face at least one or two of these decks at a tournament.

CARD HIGHLIGHTS:

In every set, there are certain cards that stand out. Score has worked hard to ensure a sense of balance within the styles, giving each a few “power cards” in every set. Let’s take a look at my picks for best cards from Cell Games.

Black Style :

3 Cards stand out here. Black Face Slap is my top pick, because it provides the manipulation of the underused Cell Saga mastery along with a hard to stop attack that is greatly enhanced by the Trunks Saga Mastery. If it hits, it does +4 stages and +2 life cards of damage, plus your opponent has to randomly discard a card. Then there’s Black Double Attack Drill, which enhances all of your physical attacks with a nice +2 power stage bonus, with the evil effect of not allowing your opponent’s allies to take damage from your physical attacks. Finally, there’s Black Wrist Block, which is a non-removed after use Physical/Energy Stopper, but only if you declared a Tokui-Waza.

Blue Style:

Blue didn’t improve that much with Cell Games. The one card that stands out is Blue Windup Blast, an energy attack doing +1 life cards of damage for every uncommon card in your discard pile, to a max of 10. This card can bust a game wide open, but if it’s stopped, pretty much does nothing.

Namekian Style:

Namekian got a lot more new cards in this set, most with high endurance values and the concept of recycling. The best one in my opinion is Namekian Quick Blast, the strongest Focused Energy Attack in the game (along with the equally powerful Orange Focused Attack). Doing 5 life cards of damage, you can shuffle any 2 discards back into your life deck, after you remove 2 other discards from the game (if the attack hits). This allows for great discard manipulation.

Orange Style:

Orange took the offensive in Cell Games, as shown with cards like Orange Focused Attack. It’s a Focused Energy Attack doing 5 life. If successful, all damage (life cards and power stages) from any physical attack for your opponent’s next attack. While orange normally doesn’t have a problem with physical attacks, the best part of this card is its high chance of connecting.

Red Style:

Red style has conflicting high points in Cell Games. For the red beatdown deck, there’s Red Flying Attack, a nice physical doing +5 as long as you declare a Tokui-Waza. On the anger side of thing, there are 2 nice focused attacks - Red Overhand Slash and Red Energy Surprise - that both do minimal damage, but if they hit they’ll gain you 2 anger. Red Overhand Slash has the advantage over Energy Surprise, mostly because it can do +4 power stages easily with the Red Mastery from Cell Saga, which is no laughing matter.

Saiyan Style:

Saiyan got a few interesting cards in Cell Games. The best one is most likely Saiyan Face Smash, a physical doing +3 power stages of damage. The secondary effect is great here, making your opponent discard a life card from the top of his deck every time he wants to use ANY physical combat card - even to block this attack.

Freestyle:

Most will agree that perhaps the best cards from Cell Games hold no affiliation to any particular fighting style. My top picks were Brothers In Training, Aura Clash, The Power of The Dragon, Caught Off Guard Drill, and Goku’s Farewell. Brothers In Training has a nice endurance value of 3, plus lets you search your deck for any single drill and place it in play immediately. This card will be abused in many, many decks. Aura Clash is your one-stop Vinegar, #18, Trunks, and Piccolo The Trained solution, forcing every player to gain 6 anger. This also gives nice drill removal in the form of leveling up. Just be careful—while you can’t win by Most Powerful Personality Victory, your opponent still can! The Power of The Dragon is perhaps the best anti-dragonball card short of Fades. Although it is restricted, it is not removed from the game after use and can be used more than once with ease. It gets around those nasty Capturing Drills, shuffling all of your opponent’s Dragonballs back into his life deck. Don’t forget that if he wants to put them back into play, he has to use their powers again! The card also grabs any ally from the discards or life deck, and having multiple uses is always good. Caught Off Guard Drill is a current favorite of Hero decks. This card allows the user to name any single non-Dragonball card in the game, and makes it not exist as long as the drill itself remains in play—no player can play or use the named card, no matter what kind of tricks they try to pull ^_^ Finally, Goku’s Farewell has opened up many new decktypes from the second players laid their eyes on it. Allowing you to instantly advance to either your level 3, 4, or 5 personality level (whichever is your maximum), the card opens up the possibility of using the insanely good level 5 powers. Only problem is, once you reach 5 anger after you use this, you lose the game. This can be done in 1 shot by Aura Clash or Straining Jump Kick Move. Plus, you gain 1 anger at the start of each of your turns, so move fast—or else!

Cell Games has brought about many new cards and ideas for decks --- what else will surface for Nationals and Worlds?

 

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