Now that Dragon Ball Super has wrapped up, we wanted to have a Spoiler Free list of the best personality cards for our (mostly) heroes of Universe 7. This won’t be a typical top ten list in that I’m not rating the cards against each other, just picking out the most impactful Retro DBZ personality cards for each fighter from Universe 7.
Krillin
So many of the Retro DBZ Krillins were archetyped, making it nearly impossible to point to one that’s universally “good”. While the Saiyan Saga Lv. 4 Krillin drawing the bottom two cards of your discard pile when entering combat would be considered “universally good”, no one was turning to Lv. 4 Krillin for a hand advantage deck. If you were making a Krillin theme deck, the go-to personality was Krillin the Great and Krillin’s Heat Seeking Blast for a relatively inexpensive deck that was a darling in Tuff Enuff.
Tien
Poor Tien, it never really got any better than his Saiyan Saga Lv. 1 for him. While this card was remade into a Hi-Tech card with higher power levels, the shifting power chart and Double Power rule made the Saiyan Saga version the way to go for a Tien Multi-Form deck using Devastation Drill or Orange Joint Restraint Drill. However the honor of most used Tien would probably go to the Cell Saga Lv. 1 for his economical energy attack in ally decks.
Master Roshi
This one is really a no-brainer and one of the few choices that I doubt will be contested in the community. Until his errata, colorless Master Roshi Ball was a top deck and the go to for those of us who couldn’t or wouldn’t shell out for the more expensive Piccolo Namekian decks (yeah, more on him in a second). However, with Roshi only having a Lv. 3, it did give rise to 1-3 MPPV decks as a counter.
Piccolo
Just like Master Roshi above, there was a period where Piccolo the Trained just DOMINATED the tournament scene. Piccolo actually had a few decent personality levels, they were just all outshined by PTT. Personally I was never a fan of Piccolo Namekian, so defying the odds and overcoming one to win Nationals in 2001 is probably my top personal gaming moment of all time.
Android 18
Another legacy character that dominated when she first hit the scene. Reducing some of the randomness and giving hand advantage just let Android 18 work in nearly every type of deck. The ability to run four Android 18’s Stare Down certainly didn’t hurt much either. She slowed down a lot after her errata, but even so in my opinion for a more fun and deadly Android 18 experience I recommend giving my Soccer Mom deck a try with Kid Buu Saga’s Android 18 the Mom.
Gohan
Before anyone says anything about Gohan the Swift, I wanted to go with an Adult Gohan to be in line with the tournament (and I really hate how they weren’t separated in the card game). This is another guy that again got hit by errata, but his power is still amazing with virtual hand advantage. Neat combos with him were everywhere from Piccolo and Heroes Gather to combat ender Stop. A very close second was Gohan the Bookworm, which had card advantage and the additional effect of removing cards from your opponents discard pile, a rare power in the age of Retro DBZ.
Vegeta
Another tough call to make since Vegeta falls in the same category as Krillin in that it’s hard to find a universally good personality for Vegeta. I went with the Lv. 3 Hi Tech from Cell Saga since it is a universally bomb-ass power, and I didn’t want yet another “good before errata” personality on this list with Vegeta Settled Down. I know there are decent deck builds out there with Vegeta, unfortunately he’s anything but flexible for most conventional archtypes.
Frieza
YOU’RE TEARING ME APART, FRIEZA! Yeah, unfortunately there aren’t a lot of ways to play Frieza in Retro DBZ without Virtual Cards. His stacks and personalities have nothing to them except for damage mods that aren’t enough to keep him viable, a few gimmicks for capturing Dragon Balls and a pointless Lv. 4. The closest thing he has to lending itself to a real deck is the Capsule Corp Power Pack Lv. 1, and that’s not saying much. The UR Lv. 1 saw prominent use as an ally and would be the top choice for most Frieza MP stacks.
Goku
There’s really so much to love about Goku with his versatility that it’s really hard to nail down one Goku. Since the Super Saiyan 3 Goku depends on other powers, I went with the CS Hi-Tech Lv.3 as just about every Goku deck is going to want this for their Lv. 3. About the only thing Goku is lacking is a decent option for an ally.
Android 17
I went over this recently with Android 17. Pretty much the CCPP Lv. 1 is the only one left standing, mostly by default than it’s own strength.
Those are my choices. Feel free to sound off on yours in the comments or on our social media pages below.
Later, BroZ!
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