The Unbanning of Dragonball Z

There is a school of thought in card games, one that only a few have ever managed to stick to.  It is a simple concept but a very very difficult practice.  “Never ban cards.”  Simple, but as you can imagine, insanely difficult.  When Magic the Gathering suffers from periodic bans, with its lengthy playtesting, it can be very difficult for any other game to aspire to these lofty goals.  It does however offer unique rewards, since players hate having cards that they can’t play.

DBZ is notable in that the very first world tournament event had a banned card.  Dream Machine Battle.  This card has never once seen the light of high level competitive play, and for obvious reasons.  What I’m going to do in this article is provide one man’s opinion on each of the banned cards, and how through errata, we can ensure that none of our precious cardboard remains unused.

Chiaotzu’s Psychic Halt

This card was insane back in the day.  Even when it was limited it created blowout games that would completely change who was ahead in the match.  It was also regarded as the least fun thing to have happen to you in a turn.  The game, however, has evolved.  I present two different versions of CPH that I feel would allow the card to see play again, without disrupting the environment.

Version 1.        “ [Combat card] Chiaotzu Only, your opponent must pass during his “attacker attacks” phase for the remainder of the combat.  Limit 1 per deck.  Remove from the game after use.”

This is the most limited version of the card that would see play, borrowing heavily from the OCG design, this card would potentially allow one of the weakest characters in the game to actually see some play, while not being completely degenerate,  basically a Dazed on steroids, this version is sphere-able, allowing opponents the opportunity to prevent it’s effects.

Version 2.  “Players may not perform an attack during their “attacker attacks” phase for the remainder of the combat.  Limit 1 Per deck.  Remove from the game after use”

This is the version of the card that I feel is the most natural.  No longer forcing it to be character specific opens up a lot of decks to utilize it.  This version is also the reverse of Majin Buu’s Fury.  People love to see patterns, and creating a card that mirrors a different card makes it very easy to remember what it does, even without the CRD.

Cosmic Backlash

This card creates the least fun losses in DBZ.  Nothing ruins a game quicker than your opponent throwing a backlash when they’re about to lose and hitting.  DBZ is a game of epic combats, and nothing feels epic about the so called “Blind Backlash”.  What can be done to prevent this?  Well there was a lot of discussion about what to do about the card that would prevent opponents from tossing it up as a hail mary, and there was always one idea that resonated with me.

“Physical attack.  Your opponent may search his deck for any card and add it to his hand.  If successful and you did not declare a tokui-waza, you win the game, if stopped, you lose the game”

Backlash always felt like a card that should have a lot of setup going into it.  Allowing your opponent access to his entire deck prevents any sort of hail marys from winning unwinnable games.  The ‘You lose’ clause also ensures that once you attempt to kick a Cell Jr. in half, you’re pot committed.  So you’d better be darned sure that you’ve removed any blocks from your opponent’s deck.

Dragon’s Glare

This is a non-combat card that helps set up Dragon’s Victory or works as a +3 anger gain for anger decks.  Dragon’s Victory is a card that is extremely limited in scope, very seldom has a DV deck made top 8 of anything, and even when piloted by the best players in the game, it sees very little success.  Anger is a deck that is always borderline, it always seems like it should be quite powerful, but can always suffer from being hit with the right counter card at the right time.  I present a change that will possibly help DV, while ensuring Anger doesn’t get an over the top push to make it unstoppable.

“You cannot win by most powerful personality victory.  All players anger is set to 3.  Limit 1 Per deck, remove from the game after use.”

Dragon’s Glare is a card that even as is, if unbanned and left restricted, would see very little play, this version ensures that what little play it sees, is for a deck that could definitely use the boost.

Dream Machine Battle

The card that never was.  Extremely overpowered in every single situation, and as is, should never see play.  With the beauty of errata however, we can take a card that should never be played, and make it, well, sort of played!

“Remove your Life Deck from the game.  Shuffle your discard pile back into your deck.  Discard your hand.  Limit 1 per deck.  Remove from the game after use.”

While the wording likely needs work, as currently I believe you would lose the game before you shuffled your discard pile back into your deck, the card remains solid.  It still has the spirit of the original in allowing you to “restart the game”.  Yet remains limited enough in scope to not completely invalidate your opponents efforts.  Your endurance would be gone.  Whatever cards you haven’t used would be gone.  Any cards your opponent has removed would be gone, as well as any cards you use that remove themselves.  The card is sphere-able, and highly vulnerable to discard hate.  Which makes it good, but very limited in scope.

Feeding Frenzy

This card is league only, why is it banned in non-league events?  I understand that in Expanded we were allowed to use both Tuff Enough and league cards in our decks, but that’s because Expanded was broken.  Remove this card from the current banned list and nothing happens.  Making this the easiest unbanning so far!

The Talking Ends Here

A common version of the Ultra Rare Where There’s Life There’s Hope.  Originally allowed as a 3 of, this card was obnoxious.  Then it was banned and promptly forgotten about.  This article however is all about digging up the past, and with a few tweaks this card can see play again.

“You may not include this card in your Life Deck if you include Where There’s Life There’s Hope in your Life Deck.  Use when your opponent wins by any means.  The victory is postponed until the start of his next turn.  Check for Victory conditions at that time.  Limit 1 per deck.  Remove from the game after use”

No longer will you have to print a proxy of WTLTH,  simply run one of your 10,000 copies of The Talking Ends Here.  With tournaments where anyone with a printer can play WTLTH, there’s no reason to have them waste ink when a functional copy of the same card already exists.

This Too Shall Pass

Startled is already a card.  You can run 3 of it.  It still sees very limited use. This card is a non-combat so it is prevented from being sphere’d.  However with a bit of rewording, it could definitely see use again.

“Use when needed.  Stop the effect of a Non-Combat/Non-Drill card your opponent is using.  Remove that card from the game.  Limit 1 Per deck.  Remove from the game after use.”

A one per deck version of Startled that RFG’s the card used.  Nothing too fancy here, just a simple errata to bring this card in the same comparable power level as other cards that already exist.

Supreme West Kai (Levels 1, 2, and 3)

The Personality everyone loves to hate.  Her unique rule made no sense at all, she saw maybe 3 minutes of screen time, and she saw more tournament play then any side character has a right to.  Her banning was the most recent one, and applied after only much debate.  I find it very hard to argue with the games designers, but if i didn’t this article would be kind of pointless.  So lets talk about SWK.

First, I’m just going to outright remove her special rule from the CRD, it doesn’t need to exist.  This eliminates the major problem with the personality.  Since playing against SWK never felt like playing DBZ, it should be removed, since we are, after all, playing DBZ.

Second her personality power is good.  Very, Very good.  While it doesn’t deserve banning, it does need some tweaking.  Especially her level 1.  Shuffling back 5 is way too good.  So to borrow a phrase from online games, lets nerf it.

“When entering combat shuffle the bottom 3 cards of your discard pile into your life deck.”

This power is still good.  It is comparable to Majin Buu’s defensive personality set, and will definitely see play.  It isn’t over powered, but just right, and in my opinion, the errata that she needs to be allowed back into the tournament scene.

For that matter, her level 2 and 3 powers can very likely remain as they are.  Sure her level 3 personality is very good, but there are plenty of other level 3s that are equally as insane, and the difficulty with reaching the level should be rewarded.

So that’s it.  The Unbanning of Dragonball Z, as a game DBZ has always used the errata to bring cards into the proper level to make them balanced.  Banning cards doesn’t just feel out of place when your errata page is already 20+ pages long, it seems almost lazy.  These of course are just one man’s opinions.  What I hope these articles provide is a discussion, about how we can make sure that every card in the game behaves as it was intended to, and every card sees play, even if in a very limited scope.

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