Looking at the Panini America Ultra Rare cards, most of them are based on Uncommon cards from the Trunks Saga. With more focus on utility than fluff, it now seems like any reasonably useful freestyle RetroDBZ card could be the next Panini America Ultra Rare. And while the next Dragon Ball Z TCG set isn’s scheduled until February 2015, we thought we’d put forward our list of ten RetroDBZ cards that could be the next Panini America Ultra Rare!
10. Trunks Makes Himself Clear
Now that anger is in play for every style, a nice Freestyle, limit one per deck card that both gives and takes anger might be a legitimate strategic boost for the game, certainly chase card worthy. Trunks Makes Himself Clear even holds up in the current RetroDBZ environment, if you are taking an anger route. Obviously I would remove the named part of the card, making it more of a spiritual successor than a reprint. Not overpowered, not needed in every deck, but certainly a useful card: all the elements of a good Panini America Ultra Rare.
9. The Plan
Ally decks seem to be the bee’s knees right now, particularly the good Captain Ginyu. Now I hope that the game avoids past Score mistakes where each new set seemed to just introduce more and more “silver bullets” for what ailed the environment and getting to the point where there were silver bullets for silver bullets. With that being said, I think The Plan would be a decent card to introduce as the ultimate “anti” for that deck type. It’s strong, but not debilitating. It’ll be a set-up, so it won’t end up as a mindless counter in your deck. It’ll be something you need to own if you’re a player and the meta shifts towards allies. And it won’t be an overkill like Cell’s Presence. As long as the game is kept balanced, and doesn’t become a game of playing the right amount of silver bullets, this could be a Panini America Ultra Rare that holds up through the life of the game.
8. Drills Are For The Weak
Everything that I said about counters and silver bullets, holds up for this card as well. Since this card would be an Event and easier to use, I’d say it can keep the “Limit 1” restriction, but it could arguably be discarded rather than banished after use. In RetroDBZ the villains got an upgrade to this card in the form of Android 17 Smirks, and the usefulness of this card diminished with the introduction of the Majin Buu Saga Freestyle Mastery and the reliability of having an Orange Focusing Drill in play with the Majin Buu Saga Orange Style Mastery. But absent those situations, a card like Drills Are For The Weak could hold up and again be a sought after Panini America Ultra Rare for any player’s collection.
7. Energy Lob
Energy Lob currently has errata making it “Limit 1 per deck”, which I think should hold true in the new game. It’s an incredibly powerful card, made even more powerful in the RetroDBZ format with cards like Victorious Drill and You’re Invited starting the game in play (something I’ve said before that I hope we never see in this game). Without turn one targets, the card becomes a little more reasonable yet is still a pretty good card. Not for every deck, but a great card none-the-less. Since Energy Lob targets Non-Combat cards, it would have to be reworked to be able to target setups, drills or both for PanZ.
6. Villains True Power
Villain’s True Power is the perfect candidate be the first RetroDBZ Ultra Rare to become a Panini America Ultra Rare, with the complete gold lettered reprint treatment. It would be the strongest energy attack in the game in terms of base life card damage, yet it does come with it’s own little drawback to real it in (but your Stare Downs will totally get around it). Admittedly it doesn’t really add anything to the game other than a large attack for villains (which would be a viable card at this stage in the game), but it would be really cool to see an old RetroDBZ Ultra Rare that didn’t get much love in the old game suddenly find new life (and value) in PanZ.
5. Hercule’s Close Save
I always felt that Where There’s Life There’s Hope was a little too generous with its game saving power, especially when a legitimate strategy of letting yourself get annihilated and just laying out all your Dragon Balls started to emerge. Of course this didn’t destroy the meta, but it’s something this game could do without. Or at least in a form that’s much simpler from a rulings standpoint and not as all-encompassing. I think Hercule’s Close Save would fit that bill nicely. It would need to lose its named card status, but it would be a decent card that could fit in every deck that wanted on last shot (just imagine this card gaining the Rejuvenate key word while playing Saiyan Empowered Mastery or Namekian Knowledge Mastery).
4. Vegeta Scans the City
This would be another card in the same vein as Hercule’s Close Save, but for a different win condition. There would have to be some alterations to this card: remove the Vegeta name, add a lightning bolt so it can be “used when needed”, and would probably have to be triggered when a foe reaches five anger (and just lowers them to 0) with the way Most Powerful Personality Victory works in PanZ. Ok, so it’d practically be a different card but it would still be a “spiritual successor” to Vegeta Scans The City even though it’s now probably closer to It’s All About Time (without the stage loss, that’s a bit much).
3. Piccolo’s Destruction Drill
Ok Ok, I know it’s not a RetroDBZ card. You got me! But it’s not like it would be the first Dragon Ball GT card that was reprinted in PanZ. There’s a severe lack of Freestyle drills in the first set, and this would more than make up for it. Not only that, it would be a valuable damage pump to get your attacks to hit more crits’ and would be completely stackable. This would again capture the perfect form of a Panini America Ultra Rare card: not needed in every deck, but a powerful enough effect to warrant getting a playset of. Like every other card on this list, the Piccolo name would have to go!
2. Eyes of the Dragon
Here’s an entry that I’ve touted as a super underrated card in the past (seriously, it’s a surprising combo with the above mentioned Energy Lob). The card has both “eyes” and “dragon” in the title, every Yu-Gi-Oh! player should be drooling over this baby. Right now Dragon Ball victory isn’t really an issue in PanZ, but that’s okay because this card works just as well in a beat down deck. It’s a sneaky powerful little devil that I would put into any PanZ deck that was running a few Dragon Balls, and fortunately with the more toned down Namek Balls this card wouldn’t be as insane as running it with all the original Earth Dragon Balls.
1. Super Saiyan Effect
It’s a staple in RetroDBZ, it has a simple yet powerful effect (just keep the errata for “Limit one per deck”) and it’s a Trunks Saga Uncommon. What more can I say?
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Later, BroZ
I’d rather not see silver bullet cards, considering theres already a few ‘remove multiple allies/drills” in the game already. different styles should have strengths and weaknesses to keep the game more balanced and fun
Article title is misleading IMO. RetroDBZ to me sounds like fan cards created by this site. I think Score DBZ is much more accurate title for the old game at this point.
Or Old-Z as some have dubbed it.
As for my opinion, I wouldn’t be surprised to see something like “Huh???” (as non-sensei deck, of course) come out.
OldZ. Who cares it RetroDBZ? The only thing I could think about was that semi-misleading title.