Agent Z : Baba Black CS
with Kevin Bock and Didier Greenleaf
Welcome to the first (of hopefully many) Agent Z! Hello everyone, Chris Smith here with a new article series for RetroDBZccg. In Agent Z, I will test newly created decks from myself and others from the community against decks that have made a top cut at a recent major event. In doing so, I hope to shed some light on the deck being tested and show it can win a tournament nomatter the size. Also, this series of articles is based solely on the opinions of myself and the people involved with making the deck being tested, for example which cards to use and how to play the deck itself. Together, we will try to find the most efficient version of the deck in question and prove its worth in the meta.
Baba CS Black Style North Kai Sensei
Before I get into the deck, I should give some back story on the personality itself: Baba, The Fortune-teller. When Baba was introduced back after Gencon 2012, she had some pretty funky powers and rules. Baba's personality powers stated that her allies in play couldn’t be discarded orremoved from the game by card effects, at the beginning of each player’s turn you would place a number of allies into play (depending on her level), and Baba and her allies could never attack. What's the purpose of not attacking? Her main objective is discarding cards???
As we all know the first draft of Baba wasn't fair as gaming standards go. As Baba (with original rules) you could start the game with one ally in play before your opponent even drew cards. As the weeks went on after her last few cards were released and added to the online gaming site OCTGN, Darryl Fisher, Shannon Jakul, and myself found out that Baba was unbeatable, winning100% of her matches against any deck in the current format. After much debate on the Dragonball Z Championship Series facebook page, we came to the guys at retro and let them know that she needed to be errata'd right away for a fear of a negative gaming experience. Thus the current version of Baba we have now was born.
The changes came a month out before the first ever North Kai Tournament, but in fear of not giving everyone who was attending the chance to test properly, Baba was banned for the event. Afew months passed, the East Kai and Celestial Games tournaments passed with no mention of Baba, and it seemed her glory days were over before they began.
Baba’s Arrival:
I had decided to play Baba at the 2013 Cell Games event in Collinsville, IL as a prepper for Gencon later that summer. As a group, we had pretty much written her off as a cute but ok personality. The version I brought was a mill and dragonball victory hybrid, and would pay for the mixing of win conditions at the expense of Shannon’s Black TS Evil Buu deck, 2-1. After the tournament, Darryl, Shannon and myself decided that Baba was a force to be reckoned with and could take us far in the Gencon 2013 Tourney. As for Gencon, I went 3-3 and Shannon went 4-2 (and missed top cuts) but Darryl and Kevin Bock (the resident Grandpa Gohan of Team Baba) made top 16 and showed how good Baba can be.
Deck List:
Baba 1-3
Mastery: Black Style Cell Saga
Sensei: North Kai Sensei***
Sensei Deck: (13)
Spike, the Devil Man
Bandages, the Mummy
See-Through, the Invisible Man
Grandpa Gohan, Masked Fighter
Ghost Usher, Attendant
Fangs, the Vampire
Straining Defense Move
You’re Invited
Black Scout Maneuver x 2
Black Water Confusion Drill
Gohan Spots the Imposter Drill
Huh???
Main Deck:
Physical Combat: (10)
Black Body Destruction x 3
Black Buffer Block x 3
Pikkon’s Leg Catch x 3
Nappa’s Physical Resistance
Energy Combat: (6)
Frieza’s Force Bubble
Nappa’s Energy aura
Black Protection Orb
Black Recovery x 3
Combat: (30)
Confrontation x 3
Super Saiyan Effect
Frieza Smiles x 3
Stop! x 2
Aura Clash x 2
Pan’s Victory x 3
Dream Fighting x2***
Dazed
Time is A Warrior’s Tool
Oh Hoi, Hoi, Hoi, Poi x 3
Land in Pain x 2
Drills Are For The Weak
Pure Defense
Trunks Energy Sphere x 3
Stupid Tricks x 2
Non-Combat (Setups): (21)
Mommy’s Coming Dear ***
Black Searching Technique x 2
Hero’s Lucky Break
Where There’s Life There’s Hope***
Watching From Afar x 3
Hercule’s Dream Sequence x 2
Expectant Trunks
Don’t You Just Hate That
Fatherly Advice
Namek Dragonball Wish
Black Thought Focus x 2
Piccolo and Heroes Gather x 2
Releasing The Sword
Krillin’s Concentration x 2
Non-Combat (Drill): (9)
Black Weakness Drill x 2
Caught Off Guard Drill x 2
Android 20 Absorbing Drill x 2
Vegeta’s Quickness Drill
Black Mischievous Drill
Victorious Drill
Dragonball: (1)
Earth Dragonball 7
Locations/Battlegrounds: (3)
Gravity Chamber x 3
***Changed from my Gencon deck (needed something against Freestyle matchups and WTLTH for stealing wins after getting beat.
Your turn by turn play pretty much goes as this:
1. Pull an ally out of the Sensei Deck.
2. Draw your three cards.
3. Lay your non-combats and power up.
4. If ready to unleash the hounds, enter combat. If not, rejuve and pass.
Pros:
- Allies board controlling powers
- You are an attacking style control deck
- Direct damage through milling
- Hand control with Black Style Cards
- A very low number of cards that can negatively affect Baba
- Leveling is a good thing, opposed to hurting
Cons:
- Cannot Attack and needs her allies to deal any damage at all through milling
- The small amount of cards that can negatively affect Baba can be game enders
With the deck list tweaked and the Pros and Cons of running Baba in a tournament finished, we will next time go over the best and worst matchups for the deck. See you for part 2 of Agent Z coming soon!!
i’m scared of baba…plain and simple…that being said…its funny how the only 2 games i played against her (randomly against you and kevin) i’m 1-1…apparently freestyle vegeta 1-3 anger can beat her first turn…but orange tien can’t even do damage against her…idk where i’m going with this but…i like the idea of baba…do i feel she’s OP?…no…but i do feel that she should be toned down just a litle bit…not nuking her, but nerfing oh hoi hoi poi poi is necessary…giving it what 4 endurance and shuffled back in is crazy…it should have no endurance and not be shuffled…that would make her EXTREMELY balanced without changing the personality
I think what most people dislike about Baba is that most people feel like they have to devote too much of their deck to tech against her. I’m not saying they’re right or wrong but traditional ally removal is essentially useless which is really annoying and I would think dragon ball decks would have a really tough time beating her since she can recycle grandpa gohan. I just built my first Baba deck and while it’s far from being the optimum build I can see how she is such a divisive MP.
Traditional ally tech doesn’t sweep her clean, but it does slow her. Baba players need to be in combat to do their damage, so they only play select cards to leave combat. If you can catch them at the wrong time with their pants down and clear their field for a combat, you can flip a match.
Baba is really strong, no doubt. Not sure I’d go as far as to say she’s broken though. She is only a 1-3, so 1-3 anger decks definitely have a leg up on her (with or without Vic Drill/Fangs). CIT, Fury, and Imposter Drill hurt ALOT, so it’s not like there’s not answers to her. If any nerfing was done, I’d start with Poi before Baba or her allies. Remove the endurance on Poi would be my first order of business. Endurance 4 is ridiculous.
Baba doesn’t need any more changes. There are bigger fish that need to be fried.
This is also very true. I’d say Goten, Mafuba, and Whammy need fixed first.