SPOOKY CARDS!
Dragon Ball isn’t exactly known for horror, despite having about three different characters based on the Xenomorph from Alien. Despite this, the occasional “spooky” card did get made for Retro DBZ, though after combing through the sets I realized how rare this ended up being and I may have had to stretch in a few places.
My original thought was to list them in order from worst to best, which I more or less do, but as with a lot of non-gameplay themed lists that kinda broke down due to the shear amount of junk cards in the game. Seriously, this list goes from “Never Used” to “Staple”, so get ready for a lot of weirdness in this list. But I do guarantee that this list will end in terror!
10) Gotenks’ Kamikaze Ghost
Well, there are two ghost cards in the game. Both of them are in the same set and both of them are pretty craptastic. This card would actually be pretty playable if it weren’t for two words: Gotenks Only! Yup, that means you would’ve needed to pull off a Fusion Dance and most likely have Goten or Kid Trunks as your Main Personality before you could even think about playing this card.
There’s also several rulings questions around this guy that were never quite answered not just because it never came up but also probably because no one ever thought it would come up. For instance does Gotenks, a character that’s both difficult to put and keep in play, need to be in play when you play this card AND activate it? The world may never know or care.
9) Majin Buu’s Kamikaze Ghost
Oh look, another ghost. At least this one doesn’t require a ton of set-up to use, just a ton of deck space to be useful (and I’m being VERY generous with that word). On one hand, he does help with the Majins lack of allies, though he doesn’t work with the ally themed Majin.
I must admit, the idea of using a Z Warriors Gather into all six of these guys and milling 24 cards in one combat is very alluring until you realize that you’re devoting about ten cards in your deck for an easily disruptable, single use trick.
8) Horrified
AHHHHH! A “sorta” poor man’s (or Hero’s) The Hero is Down, but with much less utility (and THID was never known for its utility). This is one of those cards that begged you to combo it with something like Saiyan Rapid Fire, but the stars really had to align for that one.
At least this one could go in your Sensei Deck, but if anti-ally was your concern then there were already other cards that outclassed this one in every way.
7) Majin Buu’s Goo
YOU’VE BEEN SLIMED! I can honestly say that I’ve never heard of this card being used. On the surface it has a few things going for it: No cost, Endurance and massive anger disruption. Where it loses steam is the conditional damage being dependent on attached cards. In Panini DBZ, this actually wouldn’t be too much of a problem but the Retro DBZ’s lack of attached cards hobbled this attack.
6) Baba Witch Viewing Drill
Here’s a witch we can safely burn. It would be good if it wasn’t alignment locked, and I HATE cards that are completely conditional on what your opponent is playing. At least in the next set we got Blue Mental Drill, which despite being Styled, is at least playable 100% of the time with a power that is never not useful.
5) Evil’s True Face
This gives evil a bad name. I mean it’s not worthless: it provides a decent attack boost and replaces itself in your hand. It’s just so-so.
4) Something Dangerous Is Coming
Run for your lives! This card actually did see some use, particularly in decks that ran one or two utility allies like Chi-Chi, Android 14 or Paragus. Neither effect was dependent on other either, so if it was in your deck you could generally get SOME use out of it. That being said, it wasn’t even close to a middle ground between running something that was a hard ally tutor or ally removal, making this card more or less a niche choice.
3) Dimension Scream
AHHHHH x2! While it seems very simple, this card was actually a powerhouse for a few reasons. Being an Energy Combat card meant that it was immune to Sphere and could be tutored by a Namekian Strike or an Orange Uppercut to get rid of a pesky City in Turmoil.
This also helped to make MPPV Majin Buu a viable deck by both providing a little bit of anger and wiping a Winter Countryside off the board.
2) Startled
EEEEP! Though never quite reaching the popularity of Trunks Energy Sphere, partly because it arrived on the scene so late, this was always a feared card to come across. A solid answer to Huh??? and any number or other cards. Fits anywhere and almost always useful, it has all the requirements of being a staple.
1) Blue Terror
THE HORROR! An attack and a tutor for ANY card. Sure it’s styled, but you’d be hard pressed to design a better card without it being broken. No Blue deck is complete without it.
Told you this list would leave you in terror! Happy Halloween!
Later, BroZ!
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