Future Trunks’ Roots in Panini America’s Dragon Ball Z CCG

Having seen all the known playable personalities, save Captain Ginyu, all of them have something in common: They each have a particular synergy with at least one of the playable styles. All that is except for the booster pack exclusive Trunks (and the ridiculous and questionably legal promo Goku – Super Saiyan God). So how does Trunks fit into the color wheel of the game? Will he be a jack of all trades or be left in the trade binder for his lack of specialization?

04 Trunks 1

First of all, unlike the the previously mentioned Super Saiyan God promo, Trunks doesn’t start will all his potential on the table. He’s slow to start and for just about any way you would run him, there’s a better option more suited to the style. For starters, Trunks’ powers don’t lend itself at all for an anger deck. Nothing he does compares for how much more of a benefit that you would get from using Krillin, Vegeta or Gohan for that endeavor. On top of that, Trunks is the only personality we have seen with a “When entering combat” power. In fact, all of his powers on every personality level are “When entering combat” triggered effects which effectively makes them dead powers as you level during combat. Unfortunately, the way the Trunks personality powers evolve means you must try to level him up.

05 Trunks 2

When it comes to other styles, usually there’s still another personality who has it better. The Orange Style pretty much belongs to that Drill-monger known as Goku, we’ve already gone over why other personalities might feel more at home in the Red Style, the lack of anger options in the Black Style might lead to Trunks languishing on his ineffective level one, and the absence of personality power based attacks to follow up the leveling in the Saiyan Style makes Trunks a much more technical choice for that style over more aggressive options. That pretty much leaves the Blue Style as the only option for Trunks where he doesn’t have too much of a disability in terms of synergy with the style over other personalities. So where does Trunks shine? What is he good for?

64 Trunks 3

Trunks starts looking really good at Level 2 because of those power levels. His power levels on Level 2 is comparable to the power levels of most personalities on Level 4. His personality powers, while no doubt useful from time to time, start to really take off on Level 3 where he pretty much gets to look at two hands worth of cards on defense and at least gets an extra card on the offense. Manipulating the opponent’s draws while Trunks is at Level 4 and has power stages in the highest brackets could be downright deadly. The trick is getting Trunks there in the first place.

65 Trunks 4

With no inherent advantage from a style, Trunks is going to have to work to get to his upper levels. Even with the lack of offensive powers, the Saiyan Style may not be a bad choice for Trunks once you start hitting those higher levels and you can begin to give your opponent sub-par hands while hitting hard, making up for a slower start. The Orange Style also may not be a terrible choice since you get access to Orange Devouring Drill to level you up outside of combat with little effort, though the offensive capabilities of Orange (particularly without Goku’s Kamehameha) is currently unknown.

Of course, Trunks could work with just about any style if you send him in with a few copies of IT’S OVER 9,000!, which will probably end up as a near staple for this personality. A slow starter for sure, but a strong finisher once he gets up to Level 3 or higher. Any named card support for Future Trunks will be interesting to see and could instantly change the game for this character. But will it be enough to overcome the styled advantages of the starter deck personalities?

So what do you think of the half-Saiyan teen from the future? Does his lack of synergy to a particular style help or hurt him?

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